ATP: Zverev back to tournament victory after comeback?

Once again, Alexander Zverev had a hard time getting up to speed in the first round of an ATP tournament – and still won.For the opponents of the German, this is not good news.

The pattern of Alexander Zverev’s five tournament victories in 2017 is only interrupted by the effortless two-set victory at the opening of the BMW Open in Munich.Otherwise: Always difficult games with the potential for defeat.But also with the realization that the German number one can emerge from almost every hole Zverev may have dug.

In Montpellier, for example: Three-set fight against Aljaz Bedene, in Rome, Kevin Anderson was also good for a longer affair, just like Jordan Thompson in Washington; all this, of course, no comparison with the match ball Zverev fought off against Richard Gasquet in Montréal – before the current number four in the world was able to clinch his second ATP Masters 1000 title.

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On Thursday in Shenzhen it was Steve Darcis who tortured the native of Hamburg.The Belgian, who was still successful against Zverev and Philipp Kohlschreiber in Frankfurt in the Davis Cup against Zverev in the spring of this year, led with a break in the second and third set, Alexander Zverev fought back both times.A quality that the best German player has ahead of most of his peers, actually the most colleagues on the tour.

“I’m just happy to have won,”Zverev said after the match.He will now meet Damir Dzumhur, who won the tournament in St. Gallen with the recommendation of the victory.Petersburg has come to China.Last year, Zverev won his first ever ATP tour title in the Russian metropolis.

The match against the Bosnian is not scheduled before 13:00 CEST, Zverev is the favourite in the first encounter with the number 40 of the rankings.Dzumhur has won the last two games against German opponents: In St.Petersburg in the semi-final against Jan-Lennard Struff, at the US Open in round one against Cedric-Marcel Stebe – to whom he had been defeated in Hamburg before.

Alexander Zverev has passed his first exam – and it’s not like this

Here the single tableau in Shenzhen