ATP: Round of 16!

Alexander Zverev reaches the round of 16 at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami. In three sets the German won against the Spaniard David Ferrer.

It was the expected competitive and hard game against a bravely playing Spaniard. Zverev got off to a worse start in a 2-6, 6-2 and 6-4 win over his 15-year-old rivals and was early behind.

The world ranking fifth player gave up his first service game and Ferrer had to let go first. A quick 3-0 was on the scoreboard in sunny Miami, where Ferrer presented himself in great form – as always. At 35 years of age, the evergreen is one of the fittest players on the tour and doesn’t lose a ball. So also against Zverev.

Zverev, who made too many mistakes at first, ran long behind the early gap and took a break shortly before the end of the first set. The 2:6 set loss was sealed after only 30 minutes.

Ferrer’s first loss of serve opened the second round and gave Zverev his first lead, which was equalized by Ferrer after an immediate re-break. Zverev kept up, put Ferrer under a lot of pressure and immediately struck again when it came to the break. As a result, the 20-year-old improved and Zverev seemed to play free. With a third break, the world’s current number five equalled 6-2 in the sets.

The decisive round could not have started better for the German. Zverev took his chance and took a 1-0 break lead. His exciting and first-class game developed, which was balanced by a break from Ferrer at 2:1 – all back to the beginning.

Born in Hamburg, he didn’t let his Spanish counterpart throw him off course and remained true to his line, acting stable on the backhand and repeatedly setting accents with his forehand. At the right time, Zverev fully exploited his potential and took the break for a 5-4 lead in the decisive set’s crunch time. Sascha” skilfully served his advantage after 1:52 hours of play to a three-set victory.

The men’s single tableau in Miami