Third game, third defeat – and the early end in the round of 16 of the Madrid Open: Alexander Zverev failed again on Francisco Cerundolo, the German tennis player lost 5: 7, 3: 6.
Zverev had no good connections to play against the Argentine. A year ago, the 28-year-old had failed in the same point in the same moment of the tournament in Madrid in the first duel of Cerundolo with 3: 6, 4: 6. The second encounter was in Buenos Aires two and a half months ago when Zverev lost in three sets in the quarter -finals.
Cerundolo strikes late in set one
During this time, Cerundolo was one of the many beneficiaries of a weak phase of Zverev, who had slipped into a low performance after his final at the Australian Open (clear defeat against Jannik Sinner). This continued until April when the top German player in Monte Carlo left in the first round. But then the supposed turn came, in Munich Zverev won his first tournament this year and came back to the road to success.
Francisco Cerundolo in action
With seven wins in a row, number two in the world rankings went to the third duel against Cerundolo, which he finally wanted to crack. In the first set, a torn match developed with many mistakes on both sides – and a Zverev that completely lost the thread at the crucial moment. He had lost two points in his surcharge until 5: 6, but then his opponent suddenly breaks him under kind help and secured the set win.
Zverev struggles, throw the racket and loses
And the German continued in the second round where he had stopped in the first. The errors were even more piling up, he struggled with tight decisions, although these were recognizable by the respective impression-unlike in the previous game against Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina, when Zverev even photographed a misjudgment of the HAWK Eye with his cell phone and was warned. Zverev lost his second service game in a series, Cerundolo quickly led 2-0.
The Argentinier then wobbled for the first time, but Zverev did not take advantage of his chances. With a weak volleystop and one of the many too far, he enabled his opponent to win the point to 3: 0. When Zverev fell 1: 4 behind after another mistake, he then threw his racket to the ground for the first time, so much dissatisfaction was in him.
But nothing helped, after 1:29 hours Cerundolo converted his second match ball to 7: 5, 6: 3. At his sixth tournament this year, the 26-year-old made it to the quarter-finals for the fifth time, so far, however, it was only enough for two semi-finals. The next opponent of Cerundolo in Madrid is shooting star Jakub Mensik, the 19-year-old won the Masters in Miami in March and conquered Novak Djokovic in the final.