Chance of ATP Finals is alive
Marathon man Zverev wins with “a little drama”
November 1, 2023, 10:20 p.m
Alexander Zverev opens the door to a place in the round of 16 at the Masters 1000 tournament in Paris. But then it remains exciting for a long time. The audience cheers on his opponent. Now it’s against Stefanos Tsitsipas. Then Zverev will have to improve.
Alexander Zverev reached the round of 16 at the Masters tournament in Paris and remains on track in the race for the ATP Finals in Turin (November 12th to 19th). The Hamburg native defeated local hero Ugo Humbert 6:4, 6:7 (3:7), 7:6 (7:5) after 3:29 hours and now faces world number six Stefanos Tsitsipas. Then Zverev will have to improve in order to win for the fifth time in the 13th duel with the Greek, because the world number nine’s game was characterized by constant ups and downs.
“Of course I would have liked to finish it in two sets, but it ended with a bit of drama. I think it was a fantastic fight, entertaining for everyone,” said Zverev: “I think I not only beat Ugo today, I think I beat the other 15,000 people in the hall a bit too. The atmosphere is always incredible.”
Humbert was there right from the start in front of the home crowd. The Frenchman confidently won his first three service games to loud applause, while Zverev had to fend off eight break points in the first set until the score was 4:4. As the duration increased, the rallies became longer, which played into the hands of the former world number two from Hamburg. A backhand error by Humbert brought Zverev the first break to 5:4, which he refined to win the set.
Humbert misses countless break chances
Amid shouts of “Ugo,” the Frenchman, who had previously won the only comparison with Zverev in Halle in 2021, remained snappy at the beginning of the second round. After being ranked 26th in the world rankings. from Metz, however, could not use his break points nine to eleven, his resistance seemed to have already been broken. However, Zverev couldn’t finish the match, Humbert got the rebreak to make it 5:5 – and was suddenly the more present player. But Zverev bit back and converted his first match point.
Daniel Altmaier had previously reached the round of 16 without a fight. On Thursday, the Kempener will meet the Dane Holger Rune, who has recently been trained by Boris Becker, or the former US Open winner Dominic Thiem from Austria. After the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, another title favorite in Daniil Medvedev failed early at midday. The world number three from Russia had to admit defeat to the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 3:6, 7:6 (7:4), 6:7 (2:7) – and apparently gave the finger when leaving the court after he was annoyed by fans’ whistles during the match.
Alcaraz was eliminated the day before against the Russian Roman Safiullin. Since his triumph at Wimbledon in July, the 20-year-old Alcaraz has had to wait for a tournament victory. The world number one Novak Djokovic from Serbia, however, solved his task confidently against the Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6:3, 6:2.