Alexander Zverev has been eliminated from the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Beijing. The German number one lost to the Tunisian Malek Jaziri in three sets.
Zverev’s match, set in second position behind Juan Martin del Potro, was not set before 9 pm. And the German could have finished his working day against Malek Jaziri a little earlier with more concentration in the first set. In the end, however, the Tunisian went after a 7:6 (5), 2:6 and 6:4 winner from the field.
69 minutes were played, when a backhand lob of the German number one sailed out behind the baseline, the twelfth and decisive point in the tiebreak of the first set. Jaziri took the lead, Zverev had to be twice as angry. Not only over this ball, but also over the fact that he had relinquished a break lead in the first run.
In the second set, Zverev started directly with a break, but missed to present the next one 4:1. Jaziri tried to occupy his opponent with many undercut balls from the backhand side, Zverev kept his patience in front of his father Alexander sr. and Ivan Lendl. After 110 minutes, the Hamburg-born player turned his first set point with a sure smash after a courageous net attack.
The fact that Jaziri was now the player who was able to get a break advantage in the decisive set surprised the few remaining spectators at the Beijing Olympic Stadium. Zverev immediately struck back to 1:2. Everything remained in order until the tenth game, when Jaziri was only two points away from the sensation on Zverev’s serve. Zverev kept his nerve at first, but then had to watch a backhand ball sail sideways into the out after midnight.
It was the third breakpoint for Jaziri – and the third that the Tunisian used. Zverev, on the other hand, could only use four of his 17 break chances.
Jaziri will now face Nikoloz Basilashvili in the quarter-finals on Friday. The Georgian, this year’s winner at the Rothenbaum in Hamburg, beat the Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco in two sets.
Here is the men’s single tableau in Beijing