After Michelsen’s serve, Alcaraz closed to the net and fired a bullet forehand that the American fended off, then he followed up with the stunning drop shot that left the opposing pair with no chance of a return.
“Oh, how on earth! He meant it. It dropped stone dead. Please can we see that again?” TNT Sports’ commentator Simon Reed exclaimed.
“Oh my goodness! That kind of rolled down the net…when you see other players looking stupefied by it, you know it is good,” was the reply from 1987 Wimbledon doubles champion Jo Durie.
Even Alcaraz’s Team Europe teammates were amazed by the shot.
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Curry and Federer team up for legendary coin toss
Video credit: TNT Sports
Ruud dropped his racket in disbelief, having previously set up Alcaraz’s dash to the net with a fizzing cross-court forehand to Michelsen.
And the European bench was a picture of incredulity with Alexander Zverev and Flavio Cobelli both standing hands-on-head in amazement while team captain Yannick Noah mimed bowing down to Alcaraz, and Henman applauded.
“I just want to say that, when you are as good as him it almost seems like every shot he has, he is like ‘I have 17 shots in the book I could play’,” Ruud said in his post-match interview.
“So I just say ‘please just play the one that works the best’ and then typically he goes for the most difficult one but he makes it. Come on, it is a joke!”
Laughing, Alcaraz added: “Sometimes a lot of ideas come to my mind, in one second I had to choose one and as Casper said I always choose the most difficult one. I do not know why but I just enjoy making these choices, in that position it was the only shot, the best shot I could choose in that moment. It was exactly how Tim (Henman) told me.”
After a hard-fought opening set was decided by a 7-4 tie-breaker, Alcaraz’s moment of magic was the icing on the cake of a dominant second set for Europe.
They overwhelmed the Americans 6-1 in San Francisco’s Chase Center, hitting less winners than their opponents but producing almost half as many unforced errors. The booming serves of Michelsen and Opelka were not enough and it allowed Europe to close the gap in overall points to three points.
With one point available for wins on day one, two on day two and each day three win netting three points, Alcaraz and Ruud’s victory helped Team Europe close to 6-9 down, requiring two more wins from the remaining three singles matches to triumph overall.
