Mischa Zverev has reached the final of the ATP tournament in Eastbourne. Alexander Zverev’s big brother prevailed against the Russian Mikhail Kukushkin.
Mischa Zverev and Mikhail Kukushkin were two old school players. Zverev in particular loves the quick game on grass to build up his serve and volley game.
This worked well from the beginning and the German took the lead with a break and 4:1. The left-hander acted aggressively as usual, went on the net at every opportunity and skilfully put the volleys in the corners.
Zverev served at 5:3 to win the set and lost completely the thread. Several serve mistakes and slight volley mistakes brought Kukushkin up to 4:5 and back into the match.
Afterwards an exciting and close match developed, which should find the first decision in the tiebreak. Both players missed set points and left great chances. After all, it was Zverev who won the tiebreak with his sixth set point 11:9.
The second movement began as the first came to an end. There were hardly any free points for the spectators in Eastbourne to see and chances remained scarce on both sides.
Up to 4-4 Zverev often failed with his forehand and then benefited from some slight mistakes made by the Russian on the other side. The break to 5:4 for Zverev was decisive and the left-hander served calmly to the 7:6 (9) and 6:4 final score.
In the final Zverev will face Lukas Lacko, who beat Marco Cecchinato in two sets 6:3 and 6:4.