Alexander Zverev blew through with relief and patted his Davis Cup buddy Daniel Altmaier on the chest with appreciation.
With a lot of effort, the Olympic tennis champion at the US Open won the German duel in 3:43 hours 7: 6 (7: 1), 3: 6, 6: 4, 6: 3 and advanced to the third round . Zverev made numerous mistakes at times, and only in the course of the game did the twelfth place in the world rankings increase.
“All’s well that ends well,” said Boris Becker as an expert at Sportdeutschland.TV. “Sascha Zverev wins the game on the net, I didn’t expect that. Daniel has a great future ahead of him, compliments.” In the round of the top 32, Zverev will face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow, who defeated British veteran Andy Murray in three sets.
In the early stages, both players did not show a high level. Zverev only turned up the heat from the third set, became significantly more aggressive and showed off his extra class. When the score was 5:3 in the fourth set, a spectator in the stands had a medical emergency – a short time later the game was decided. Zverev had won the previously only duel at the Australian Open 2022 in three sets.
Lys and Korpatsch eliminated
He is now the last remaining German tennis pro in the individual competitions. As the last of five German players to start, Eva Lys and Tamara Korpatsch were eliminated in the second round. The 21-year-old Lys from Hamburg had several treatments during the game against the Italian Lucia Bronzetti and lost 3:6, 2:6. Korpatsch (28) also had no real chance of winning in the 3: 6, 3: 6 against the number 14 seeded Russian Lyudmila Samsonowa. Both Germans missed the first third round entry in a Grand Slam.
Zverev’s game took place again on outdoor court 17. After winning the first round, the Hamburg resident called the fourth largest stadium in Flushing Meadows “Snoop Dogg’s living room” in reference to the US rapper – on Thursday the smell of marijuana from the nearby park kept wafting across the square.
Altmaier mostly defensive in long baseline duels
Zverev and Altmaier met on the pitch during training two hours before the game started. After his session, Zverev eyed his rival for a few moments – but the warm-up didn’t give either opponent any security. The initial phase was characterized by numerous inaccuracies. Zverev controlled the rallies, Altmaier mostly acted on defense in long baseline duels. In a break festival, both served each other six times in the first round. At 5:5, Zverev even conceded the break to zero with a double fault.
Overall, the Davis Cup teammates made 39 slight mistakes in the opening set alone, Zverev remained more constant in the tie-break and got the passage after a tough 75 minutes. Altmaier had his batting hand treated during the break – but was unimpressed by it. With two breaks, the outsider took the second set. Zverev sat on the bench shaking his head when Altmaier disappeared for the toilet break.
Zverev stronger from the third set
“He seems a bit unfocused to me. He has good phases, but he also has phases where he doesn’t know what the plan was,” analyzed Zverev’s brother Mischa as a TV expert. “I wish he would change direction a little more often.”
The intensity increased and the rallies slowly became more high-class. Zverev continued to miss numerous good opportunities, but was able to use his 21st breakball to make it 5:4. With his sixth ace, Zverev secured the third set a little later and roared his joy with relief towards his followers with his father and coach Alexander senior and girlfriend Sophia Thomalla in the stands.
Once in motion, the former world number two didn’t let problems with replenishing freshly strung rackets stop him. “I don’t have any more,” Zverev complained to the German referee. With a strong passing ball, he got the break to make it 2-1 in the fourth set. Zverev kept this lead and was able to celebrate after more than three and a half hours.
