French Open: Alexander Zverev after the next feat in the round of 16

Alexander Zverev has reached the Round of 16 at the French Open 2018 with the next act of violence: Germany’s number one defeated Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia in five sets.

By Jens Huiber from Paris

There was good and bad news for Alexander Zverev before his third round match at the French Open 2018 in Paris. The good news: Finally the German number one was allowed to get to the Court Philippe Chatrier, in the biggest stadium of the complex. The bad news: Zverev should play his first match against Damir Dzumhur, at a time when the Hamburg native is usually not yet in full swing.

On Friday, however, this turned out to be a grey theory: Alexander Zverev came to the pitch with an extremely good night’s sleep, but had major problems with the Bosnian, against whom he lost in Shenzhen last autumn. Zverev won 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (3) and 7-5 and will face Lucas Pouille and Karen Khachanov in the next round. Dzumhur had already won the match in the fourth set.

Last year Alexander Zverev had gained his first experiences on the Chatrier, when Fernando Verdasco lost in a two-day affair. Against the Spanish veteran Zverev was mostly several meters behind the baseline, could hardly set offensive accents.

In the 2018 issue against Damit Dzumhur it looked completely different. Zverev played from an offensive position throughout, and also scored free points time and again with his serve. Dzumhur, after all the number 29 on the ATP charts, simply lacked the means to put Zverev in trouble at the beginning.

The first set did not even last half an hour, also in the second act Zverev managed an early break to 2:1. that Dzumhur managed the balance to 3:3 was not planned in the script. Not even the 5-3 break for the underdog. After 65 minutes, Dzumhur had equalized, winning five games in a row. Zverev was looking for some helpless eye contact with his box.

Dzumhur made another break at the beginning of the third set, Zverev equalized. And fought off 0:40 in the seventh game on his own service. A few moments later, however, the German chased a forehand behind the baseline with Dzumhur leading 5-4 break and Zverev failed to take two chances for a comeback and after 1’46 hours faced the same task as in round two against Dusan Lajovic: a 1’2″ gap.

Lajovic, however, had fired his powder on Wednesday after the third set and had to pay tribute to the heat. On a rather cool Friday Damir Dzumhur was not expecting this. Zverev came back this time for 3-2, broke Dzumhur in the eighth game and then fended off three chances for the Bosnian to take the lead again.

And helped a lot during the break to 5:6 with a double mistake. But Dzumhur also showed nerves, lost the service game to the match win with four own mistakes to zero. In the tiebreak, Zverev dominated the match and used his second set point as compensation.

In the decision Zverev managed an early break, which he gave back in the eighth game. To zero. At 4-4, Dzumhur fended off a break point after a sensational point, a few moments later Zverev put a volley by millimeters out: match point for Dzumhur after 3-43 hours. Zverev fought back with a strong serve to the outside. And then took the decisive break. Eleven minutes after defending his opponent’s match point, Zverev celebrated his first appearance in the round of 16 at the French Open.

Alexander Zverev is now waiting for the winner of the match between Karen Khachanov and Lucas Pouille. There has been a match against the Russians so far, Zverev defeated Khachanov in autumn 2016 on his way to his first tournament victory in St. Petersburg. It would be the first settlement against Pouille.