South Africa’s Kevin Anderson avenged his Wimbledon final defeat to claim only his second ever victory over Novak Djokovic on day two of the Laver Cup.

With each win counting two points on day two, Team World were in heaps of trouble as two earlier losses in the day left them trailing Team Europe by six points.

A 7-1 scoreline left them needing an improbable victory from Anderson, but that is exactly what he delivered.

The first set was a tight affair as neither player managed to set up a single break point and the set went to a tie-breaker.

Anderson took an early 3-1 lead in the breaker after Djokovic made an unforced error off his backhand. Anderson gave that advantage back after Djokovic forced an error for the South African. At 5-5, Anderson hit a glorious forehand winner to set up a set-point. The Serbian then double-faulted to give Team World the first set.

The second set saw a total of five break points, but only one was converted, and it went the way of the Wimbledon champion. Djokovic got the vital break in the 11th game after Anderson made an unforced error off his backhand. The Serb served out the set to level the match at one set apiece.

As the third set of the Laver Cup is merely a tie-breaker, it was anyone’s game.

Anderson took an early 2-1 lead but Djokovic stormed back to lead 4-3. At 5-4, Anderson got a mini-break and backed that up by taking another point off Djokovic’s serve to take a 9-5 lead. Anderson forced a forehand error to take the set 10-6 and claim a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 10-6 victory as Team World claimed two points.

Team World narrowed that gap by another two points as Jack Sock and Nick Kyrgios defeated David Goffin and Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-4 to leave the score at 7-5 going into day three.

In day two’s earlier games, Roger Federer defeated Kyrgios 6-3, 6-2 while Alexander Zverev defeated John Isner 3-6, 7-6 (6), 10-7.

Photo: Lavercup.com