Sunday, May 09, 2021
“Incredible feeling”
Zverev triumphs at the Masters in Madrid
The German tennis star Alexander Zverev is currently in top form: After he first clears the co-favorites Nadal and Thiem out of the way, he also decides the final of the Masters in Madrid for himself. However, it is no walk in the park: The Italian Berrettini is proving to be a tough opponent.
Alexander Zverev won the top-ranked tennis tournament in Madrid for the second time and was one of the favorites for the clay court classic in Paris three weeks before the start of the French Open. The German number one prevailed on Sunday evening in the final against the Italian Matteo Berrettini after a tough fight with 6: 7 (8:10), 6: 4, 6: 3 and thus repeated the triumph from 2018. “That is a incredible feeling, “said Zverev after winning the title.
He converted his second match point after 2:40 hours and won his second title this year. He had previously won the clay court tournament in Acapulco, Mexico. Zverev had caused a sensation in the previous rounds with wins against Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem. “It was two great matches for me,” he said before the final. There he built on his good performance. But he can’t look forward to the triumph for long. The next tournament in the Masters 1000 series is already on the program this week in Rome.
Zverev and Berrettini delivered a completely balanced game from the start. The Italian acted a little more forcefully in the first set and also got the first break to 4: 3. But Zverev held against it, managed the re-break immediately, so that the decision about the first round in the tie-break had to be made. There Berrettini quickly pulled away to 5-0, but Zverev did not give up and fended off a total of three set balls. At 7: 6 in the tie-break he even had the chance to get the first set himself, but after 1:09 hours the Italian won the first section. It was Zverev’s first loss of a set in the entire course of the tournament.
Zverev increases – and takes command
Zverev was not deterred by this. The native of Hamburg improved and took over the command more and more. At 5: 4 he made the first break of the set because Berrettini made his first double fault in the match. A little later, Zverev made the sentence adjustment perfect.
The momentum was now with the Germans. The 24-year-old had to survive a small phase of weakness at the beginning of the third set and fend off a break ball when the score was 1: 2. Shortly afterwards he took the service from Berrettini himself and was then unstoppable. Zverev collected 315,160 euros for his fourth title in the Masters category and fueled a lot of self-confidence for the French Open starting on May 30th.
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