Emma Navarro gets some help from fan at fun Garden Cup at Madison Square Garden

What tennis truly needs in the United States is for a male American star to emerge. Taylor Fritz is quite good, but he is far from elite. Americans love their tennis but having a top-ranked male player would make life better. Still, the love of the sport is there, as witnessed by a sell-out crowd at the Garden Cup at Madison Square Garden having a bunch of fun on Wednesday night.

Part of that fun consisted of Emma Navarro, who was playing Jessica Pegula, getting some advice from a front-row fan on where to stand when returning serve. This was in the second set with Navarro up a set. Pegula served the ball and Navarro made a decent return and eventually won the point. Still, the interaction between player and fan is something only exhibition matches can supply.

Tennis fans know it doesn't matter who wins or loses. We just want to see players enjoying themselves and then delivering some fantastic shots at times. The Garden Cup chose wisely who to invite to the event. Ben Shelton played Carlos Alcaraz and Pegula took on Navarro. Navarro was born in New York City, and Pegula is from Buffalo. Alcaraz and Shelton are always highly entertaining.

Emma Navarro, Jessica Pegula, Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton put on a show at the Garden Cup

Shelton even seemingly joked about how he "would not be able to sleep" after losing to Alcaraz. In all likelihood, the young American with the bombastic serve is not going to lose any sleep over the exhibition loss. One could theorize that the first two sets of his match against Alcaraz were planned as each player won a set. Alcaraz took the tie-break 7-4 to win the match.

Alcaraz knows how to put on a show and hit several ridiculous shots that few humans ever could. He is good enough to make a difficult shot work in regular matches, but in an exhibition, he takes even more risks. Many times, the shots work, and the level of fun is heightened.

Navarro defeated Pegula but 7-6 7-5. In an exhibition match, if one player destroys another the player who wins might come off as a jerk. Fans are there to be entertained and not watch one player dominate another. Madison Square Garden fans got everything they wanted on Wednesday.

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