For much of his afternoon on court against Alexander Zverev, Alex de Minaur seemed destined to end his day with an excruciating defeat. De Minaur had rapidly found himself down a set and a break, then Zverev served for the match at 6-2, 5-4. After miraculously giving himself another lifeline, De Minaur finally faced a match point at 8-9 in the final set tie-break.
No matter how grim the scoreline appeared, though, every effort he made was punctuated by roars of approval from one person in particular. There were loud screams of encouragement, pounding of chairs and stamping of feet. At one point, as doubt had crept into Zverev’s game during the second set tie-break, that unmistakable voice from the sidelines yelled out: “Check his oil!
Check his oil!” Those words came from Andre Agassi and, with such unconditional support provided by one of the greatest tennis players of all time, his Team World captain, there was no way that De Minaur could lose. De Minaur’s probing soon revealed that Zverev had indeed run out of oil, his engine failing, as the Australian recovered from match point down to close out a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9 win. Agassi’s unbridled enthusiasm and support was reflected in his team as they held their own on day two of the Laver Cup against a group of higher-ranked opponents.
With Team Europe leading 3-1 overnight, Learner Tien of the US opened the day with a 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 win over the Italian Flavio Cobolli before De Minaur defeated Zverev, the recent French and US Open champion. While match wins were worth just one point each on Friday, they were worth two on Saturday, meaning Team World led 5-3 before the evening session. Carlos Alcaraz levelled the match at 5-5 with a miraculous comeback, saving two match points to defeat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 4-6, 13-11.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this week is simply the presence of Agassi as he continues his re-emergence on to the tennis scene. For some time after his retirement, Agassi and his even more legendary wife, the 22-time grand slam champion Steffi Graf, kept a low profile at home in Las Vegas. Their lore was often only really extended through the top young players, such as Fernando Verdasco, Sorana Cirstea and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who would sometimes train with them at their home.
They would return from Nevada speaking of how invaluable Agassi’s counsel had been to their careers or how Graf was still in such tremendous shape that she could easily slot back in on the WTA tour. Otherwise, they minded their own business. Things have drastically changed over the past 18 months, starting with the announcement last February that Agassi would replace John McEnroe as Team World’s captain.
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