Thomalla is over the moon
The thunderous primal scream follows Zverev’s tennis gala
9/3/2023 6:11 am
Alexander Zverev is in the round of 16 of the US Open after the next effort. Germany’s tennis star has to fight hard for two sentences. Then the resistance of the stricken Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow was broken. Now a difficult task awaits.
After the next show of strength, Alexander Zverev let out a primal scream into the New York night, his girlfriend Sophia Thomalla applauded happily: With a lot of fighting spirit and a strong performance, he stormed into the round of 16 of the US Open. “I missed these battles and this atmosphere in New York,” said Zverev after the hard-fought 6: 7 (2: 7), 7: 6 (10: 8), 6: 1, 6: 1 against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow .
It took 3:38 hours in Flushing Meadows before Zverev defeated his “favorite opponent”, who had been playing for a long time. “The first two sets were the best two sets of my season, it was an incredibly high level. He then got tired and I went my way,” said Zverev, who literally rolled over the battered Bulgarian in sets three and four and for the fourth consecutively made the round of 16 in New York.
Now a real chunk is waiting with Sinner
There the Olympic champion now meets the sixth in the world rankings Jannik Sinner, with the Italian the first really big chunk awaits Zverev on Monday. Against Dimitrov, number 19 in the world, it was Zverev’s sixth win in the seventh duel. “In the end it depends on who is mentally better. I can still learn a lot from Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal,” said Zverev after his performance improvement.
Because at the start of the night session in the Louis Armstrong Stadium, a match developed at a high level, Dimitrow posed problems for Zverev, especially with many slice shots. “I haven’t seen such a strong Dimitrov for a long time,” said expert Boris Becker on the microphone – and the Bulgarian got the first round after 1:10 hours in the tie-break with strong nerves.
About three weeks ago in Cincinnati, Zverev had easily dominated the Bulgarians 6: 2, 6: 2, but the former third in the world rankings did not let up. Zverev pushed himself, in the second set the Hamburger’s nerves held, who equalized after a dramatic tie-break – the turning point in the game. Because suddenly things went well for Zverev, the Bulgarian’s strength decreased noticeably. Zverev broke early in the third set, Dimitrow took a medical break after the 1: 6. Zverev was unimpressed and in the end moved confidently into the next round.