Alexander Zverev has won the NextGen duel against Frances Tiafoe and is in the round of 16 of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris for the first time.
After 1:44 hours the fourth seeded Zverev turned the second match point against the world rankings-44 in his opening game. Tiafoe to 6:4, 6:4. It was already his 53rd victory of the year (17 defeats).
The Hamburg-born player will face either Argentinian Diego Schwartzman (No. 15) or experienced Spanish qualifier Feliciano Lopez in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
After two recent semi-final appearances at the 1000 Masters in Shanghai and the 500 Masters tournament in Basel, Zverev is looking to gain further confidence in Paris-Bercy for the upcoming last mega event of the season, the ATP finals in London (11 to 18 November).
In the 12th arrondissement in the east of the French metropolis, Zverev had so far only started in 2017. At that time he had lost his opening match against Robin Haase (Netherlands). In the duel with his buddy Tiafoe, it became clear right from the start that the round of sixteen project would require a lot of effort. Already the very first rally consisted of 19 strokes.
The 21-year-old, who already had three double faults on his account after three service games, was particularly weak on the first serve. However, he was highly concentrated when it came to dangerous break points. With a forehand winner (154 km/h) he fended off the first one at 1:1.
And also in the following two service games of the German number one, Tiafoe had the opportunity six times (!!!) to put a damper on the favourite early on. The Schlaks from Orlando, Florida, couldn’t use it. But: Zverev did not make it better and missed his break points one, two and three respectively at 3:2.
The game of the two NextGen stars, who had fought their way side by side on one place on Wednesday morning, was flawed. In the decisive phase of the first run, however, the fifth player of the world rankings remembered his strengths and took Tiafoe’s service away with his sixth chance – it was synonymous with the set win after 52 minutes.
At Zverev only 43 percent of his first serves landed in the field during this time, 18 Unforced Errors were certainly not to the liking of the Monegasque. But “Sascha” kept the momentum and set in the consequence on 2:0. Tiafoe, however, fought back after the false start and kept the now more sophisticated match open.
The preliminary decision was made when Zverev immediately managed to re-break to 4:4 after a new service loss – and he then dropped Tiafoe’s serve. The US player was able to defend himself against the first match point, Zverev made everything clear in the second.
His coach Ivan Lendl did not sit in the box, the former number one is still recovering from an operation on his wrist, but will look after his protégé at the ATP finals in London (November 11 to 18) next to his father Alexander Zverev Sr.