Helping drag Andre Agassi's side back into the three-day event at London's O2 Arena, the Australian, who simply thrives in team competition, maintained his 100% singles win record against Europe in Laver Cup duels, fighting back to defeat double grand slam champ Zverev 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 11-9.
Despite the win, it was still advantage Team Europe at the end of day two, Zverev atoning for his singles defeat by teaming up with Casper Ruud to beat Team World pair Brandon Nakashima and Alexander Bublik. 6-4 7-6 (9-7) in the doubles.
That gave Europe a 7-5 advantage heading into the final day, with 13 points - or three wins from the remaining five matches - required for an overall victory. Team World could square the fixture with three wins of their own to take the clash to a deciding extra doubles match.
Earlier on Saturday, Learner Tien got things off to a brilliant start for Team World with a 6-3 2-6 10-7 win over Flavio Cobolli before Carlos Alcarez saved two match points in a gritty 6-3 4-6 13-11 defeat of Taylor Fritz.
But de Minaur left the most blood on the court - quite literally.
"If you can notice, my blood is red as well," de Minaur said, smiling at how Team World's scarlet shirts had seemed to reflect his bloodied right leg, which he'd hurt when making the spectacular tumbling Boris Becker-like volley on his way to winning a point in the match tie-breaker.
"It was a very tough match. A tough battle. I left it all out there and got fortunate in the end to get the job done and I'm happy to give some points for Team World."
It was de Minaur's fourth singles win in three editions of the Cup in which he's yet to be defeated in singles combat, and his second-straight victory over Zverev after defeating the German in San Francisco last year as Team World won the title.
Yet de Minaur's victory was rather unexpected, especially with Zverev being on a rare roll, unbeaten in nine matches and fresh from both his US Open triumph and two Davis Cup wins.
The Australian never gave up the ghost, even when Zverev was serving for the match. "Check his oil," Agassi had told 'Demon', trying to get him to force Zverev into a wearying war of attrition.
Even then, Zverev missed his big chance, serving for the match and a straight-sets win at 5-4 in the second stanza only to cough up two double faults that allowed de Minaur to break and level the match on a tiebreak.
The next crisis point for de Minaur was when Zverev gained match point in the first-to-10-point match tiebreak, only to play a conservative point.
De Minaur then earned a match point of his own and capitalised on the world No.2 coming up with a weak smash which he returned with an irretrievable down-the-line backhand to seal his two-hour win.
