Alexander Zverev successfully started his title mission at the ATP Finals in Turin, but still found cause for criticism.
The German tennis star defeated the Russian Andrey Rublev 6:4, 6:4 in his opening match after a confident performance and took a big step towards the semi-finals at the season finale.
The Hamburger’s next opponent on Wednesday is the Norwegian Casper Ruud, who had previously surprisingly defeated Spain’s top star Carlos Alcaraz in two sets.
“I’m happy about the match and hope that I can play even better in the next games,” said Zverev on “Sky”.
The Hamburg resident was annoyed about the slow court in Turin: “Hard court tournaments in the hall should be the fastest tournaments in the world. I just don’t like the direction this is going.”
Zverev is aiming for his third title in the annual ranking of the best eight tennis professionals after 2018 and 2021 in the Italian metropolis. After his triumph at the Masters in Paris, he traveled to Turin with the wind at his back. For the Tokyo Olympic champion, a triumph in Turin would be the highlight of a complicated season with many ups and downs, in which he has now won 67 matches, more than any other player on the tour.
ATP Finals: Alexander Zverev makes ice-cold use of Rublev’s mistakes
The tenth meeting between Zverev and Rublev started evenly, with the Russian winning his first three service games to zero.
Then Rublev had a weak phase when the score was 3:3 and gave Zverev the break with simple mistakes. The German, who was as dominant as ever on his own serve, secured the first set a short time later.
In the second round, both players hardly made any mistakes on their own serves, before Rublev showed nerves again when the score was 4:4 – and Zverev took hold ice-cold. After 72 minutes, Zverev used his first match point to win.
Source: www.sport.de
