Alexander Zverev suffered the next surprisingly early setback. The Olympic tennis champion lost his first round game against Australian Jordan Thompson 3:6, 4:6 in 95 minutes at the ATP tournament in Tokyo.
The 26-year-old had already failed at the start of the Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai. This means that Zverev is slowly threatening to squander his good starting position for participation in the ATP Finals.
Frustrated Zverev
A week and a half ago, the physical strain of the previous tournaments was clearly noticeable for the Hamburg native. Zverev, who was number three, didn’t show a good performance against Thompson in Tokyo. After a sly passing ball for the decisive break to 4:5 in the second set, the world number nine roared out his frustration. “He has great quality, but I believed I could win,” Thompson said of his win.
On the way to the desired qualification for the year-end tournament in Turin, Zverev is currently in seventh place. The best eight tennis professionals of the season qualify for the ATP Finals in mid-November.
