French Open: Mischa Zverev fights his way to second round victory

Veteran Mischa Zverev has fought his way to victory after a chase to catch up and is in the third round of the French Open for the first time.

The 30-year-old from Hamburg defeated the Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky in 3:12 hours 6:3, 6:7 (0:7), 7:6 (7:2), 6:1. 50 direct wins went to the older Zverev brother – with 33 Unforced Errors.

In the third heat the world ranking 64th was already trailing 0:3 and 2:5 and even had to fend off a set point from Stakhovsky (ATP-Ne. 127) at 4:5. This is only the second time this season that Mischa Zverev has survived the first two rounds of a tournament. At the Masters in Monte Carlo, the left-hander had failed in his third game. The Davis Cup player had never been in the third round of the Stade Roland Garros before.

There Mischa Zverev, who turned five of his 17 break chances against the 32-year-old Ukrainian, will face either US Open finalist Kevin Anderson (South Africa/No. 6) or Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay on Saturday. Most recently, Zverev had reached the round of 16 in the US Open last year with a major, his best Grand Slam result being his participation in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open that same year.

Before Zverev, Maximilian Marterer had already entered the third round in Paris on Thursday with an impressive performance. Nuremberg defeated 19-year-old Canadian super talent Denis Shapovalov 5:7, 7:6 (7:4), 7:5, 6:4 on Thursday and will now meet Jürgen Zopp (Estonia). Jan-Lennard Struff retired after a 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 2-6, 2-6 against Steve Johnson (USA).

Zverev’s younger brother Alexander (Hamburg) had already advanced into the third round on Wednesday by beating Serb Dusan Lajovic in five sets. He will meet Damir Dzumhur (Belarus/No. 26) on Friday. Philipp Kohlschreiber (Augsburg), Florian Mayer (Munich), Oscar Otte (Cologne) and Peter Gojowczyk (Munich) were eliminated in their opening matches.