Blitz knockout in Toronto
Alexander Zverev is completely off the mark
8/10/2023 5:56 am
Still convincingly strong in the first round, but completely off track in the second round: Alexander Zverev fails in Toronto at Alejandro Davidovich Fokina from Spain. The German never finds his game and sneaks off the court after a good hour.
Tennis Olympic champion Alexander Zverev clearly failed in the round of the last 32 players at the Canadian Open. Against the world number 37. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina from Spain lost the 26-year-old from Hamburg in two sets 1: 6, 2: 6. In the round of 16 of the Masters 1000 tournament, Fokina (24) now meets the Norwegian Casper Ruud, who prevailed against the Czech Jiri Lehecka in two sets.
Zverev never found a match against Davidovich Fokina. A completely unsuccessful overhead shot in the first game was followed by two double mistakes in a row – the first break went to zero for the Spaniard. Although Zverev managed to win the first game on his next service, it stayed that way. The first set was gone after just 24 minutes. In the second set, too, Zverev didn’t want to succeed despite a slight improvement. The world number 16. was broken twice again by the Spaniard, who was unable to win a single set in the previous three duels with Zverev, and also gave up the second round in just 38 minutes.
In the first round, Zverev had won convincingly against the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor. Unlike Montreal, where Zverev triumphed in 2017, Toronto remains a bad place for the 26-year-old. The tournament alternates annually between the two metropolises.
Should Zverev make it to the semifinals in Toronto, “he will go to the US Open as one of the favorites,” tennis icon Boris Becker said on Tuesday at a media event with a view to the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. There are now probably others favored. The hard court tournament in New York will take place from August 28th to September 10th. Zverev missed the US Open last year because of his serious injury.