Alexander Zverev started with a victory in the ATP Final in London: The German number one defeated the Croatian Marin Cilic in two tiebreak sets after initial problems.
By Jens Huiber from London
The first time Alexander Zverev sent his bat on its journey after the third game. The opening match of the German number one against Marin Cilic had been balanced until then, but the scoreboard still showed the Croatian as 3-0 leader. The number of Mishits did not decrease significantly afterwards. But Zverev stayed on the ball, defended into several break points, made the comeback to 4:5, saved himself into the tiebreak.
Zverev initially missed two set points on his own serve, but after a fine variation he won the short decision 7:5 and the second set 7:6 (1) after a playing time of 2:06 hours. In the second match of the group Guga Kuerten tournament favourite Novak Djokovic and debutant John Isner meet in the evening.
Both players tried to play their game aggressively, Cilic did this more often. The US Open champion of 2014 also made more mistakes than Zverev. The Hamburg-born player could have made things clear early in the second set, but missed a break chance in the Croatian’s first service game. Zverev took the fact that Cilic went 4:3 away with the composure of a man who had won five matches in the previous six matches with the US Open winner of 2014. Cilic helped with the Re-Break to 4:4 friendly, Zverev accepted three simple forehand mistakes of his opponent thankfully.
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In the morning Zverev and Peter Torebko, the German hitting partner for the finals participants, had made their way. Cilic had only come to the court with coach Ivan Cinkus. But against Marin Cilic, it seems, Alexander Zverev always finds a way to get back into a match.
The first match point was won by the German at 5:4 with an unattainable forehand return, Cilic defended, could equalize. Again a tiebreak had to decide, again Zverev was the player with the more solid game. The German number one went 5:1, three times Cilic had pulled a forehand, once he offered a double fault. The next match points were won by Alexander Zverev with a backhand shot, after 2:06 hours was the first victory in his pocket.