After Team World squandered a four-point lead to lose the Laver Cup, Andy Roddick pinpointed exactly why John McEnroe’s final-day doubles selection was wrong.
A stunning fightback on day three of the Laver Cup saw Team Europe win all but one of their matches to prevent John McEnroe from three wins in a row.
The day began with a peculiar doubles pairing of Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud, with the Norwegian without a win in his first two matches.
With the huge-serving Ben Shelton partnering Frances Tiafoe, the American pair lost the opening set in 37 minutes 6-2, before managing to take the second to a tie-break.
The dynamic European duo however combined smartly in the tie-break to come through 8-6 and secure three huge points for their team.
Andy Roddick insists Team World should have used two left-handed players
Andy Roddick was adamant that Team World should have targeted Casper Ruud far more convincingly – something their choice of doubles pairing prohibited.
During Ruud’s match alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas, Shelton and Chilean debutant Alejandro Tabilo waltzed to a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
Both left-handed players, Roddick highlighted on his podcast ‘Served’ that this was where Team World missed a huge opportunity.
“A few questions maybe around the doubles lineup,” Roddick said. “I probably would have gone with the lefties again, Tabilo and Shelton, and they flipped the doubles on the last day against Alcaraz and Ruud when Ruud had consistently proven before, when he played with Tsitsipas against Shelton and Tabilo, that he actually couldn’t take any returns early against a lefty.
“Shelton made himself bigger than he actually normally is. I don’t know why all of a sudden you would give them a righty serve with a gettable second serve with Frances in that next match.”
The American was quick to caveat: “I understand Frances is a magician, I get all of the great things about him, but simply once you see Ruud try to return those lefty serves in doubles, that was convincing.”
How much did this affect the Laver Cup result?
With Shelton later beating Daniil Medvedev in the first singles match of the day, doubles victory would’ve been enough to push Team World over the line.
Of course, a change of personnel may have done nothing to stop Alcaraz and a much-improved Ruud.
Indeed, nobody managed to stop Alcaraz all week besides his opening day doubles defeat to Taylor Fritz and Shelton.
Shelton had praised Alcaraz’s Laver Cup debut without hesitation, with the Spaniard simply too strong on the day for any of Team World to get close to him.
That said, Roddick’s analysis that Ruud struggled with the lefty serves was spot on and a major reason Team World took the first doubles clash against the Norwegian.
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