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Team Europe won the first two matches of the Laver Cup which kicked off in Prague on Friday, securing two out of a total of 13 points. The tournament, in its first year, takes place over three days. In the opening match, Marin Cilic edged Frances Tiafoe 7-6, 7-6.

Later, Dominic Thiem defeated John Isner in a super tiebreak: the score was 6:7, 7:6, 1:0.

The third match scheduled for Friday will see Team Europe's Zverev take on Team World's Shapovalov

The former tennis great Ilie Nastase, banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation for foul-mouthed comments and bad behavior as Romania's Fed Cup captain, has agreed to serve as a diplomat for the Czech Republic.

Nastase, who was ranked No. 1 in the world for a little under a year from 1973 to 1974 and is only one of 10 players in history to have won more than 100 ATP professional titles, called the invitation to serve as honorary consul a “great honour”.

Despite Nastase’s fiery temper, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek said he would represent Czech interests well.

As in previous weeks, academicians and university representatives are expected to gather before the seat of the government to demand an increase in next year’s state budget.

On Friday, university representatives said they would settle for a budget bump of 3.0 billion crowns, a billion-and-a-half less than they had called for until now, which they had been promised by then-Education Minister Kateřina Valachová.

They made clear they would continue protests in October if the amount were any less.

Prague’s Municipal Court has dropped charges against five Czechs who had been accused of planning a terrorist attack on a train near Chuchle’s railway bridge in 2015.

The prosecution charged that the five, described as anarchists, had prepared and buried two Molotov cocktails containing polystyrene, cooking oil, and gasoline, near a location from where they had allegedly planned to firebomb a train transporting military equipment.

The prosecution argued the five had aimed to threaten lives in the attack. Three of the five charged faced potential sentences between 12 and 20 years in jail.

The lead judge overseeing the case explained that there were unanswered questions about steps taken by the police, which had lacked transparency. The use of undercover agents in the case was also questionable as they may have served the roles of agent provocateurs. Friday’s decision may still be appealed.