After a somewhat shaky performance at the end, Alexander Zverev reached the round of 16 of the Masters in Madrid. The 29-year-old beat Frenchman Terence Atmane – and is worried about his continued participation.
In the end, Alexander Zverev took a deep breath: In the 6:3, 7:6 (7:2) against Frenchman Terence Atmane, the best German tennis player stumbled towards the end of the game after he had shown a concentrated and confident performance in the previous set.
Zverev had a surprisingly difficult time against the current number 47 in the world. He will now face Czech Jakub Mensik, number 28 in the world rankings, in the round of 16.
“I started not feeling well in the second set. I played an almost perfect match until 6:3, 5:3. I hope I can play tomorrow”said Zverev. However, he did not reveal exactly what complaints plagued him.
Held on the backhand
It took just 33 minutes for Zverev to win the first set. The German played extremely solidly, almost error-free and radiated from the start that he was aware of his superiority in the game.
Both Atmane and Zverev served at a high level until it was 3:3, before Zverev got serious in the return game and used the second break ball to make it 4:3. He repeatedly pinned the Frenchman on his significantly weaker backhand and had thus found the right means.
With the second break in the first round, Zverev played an unchallenged 6:3.
Concentration is lost
Zverev, who has never lost before the round of 16 in Madrid and has already won the tournament twice (2018, 2021), initially stuck to his successful tactics. During this phase, the 24-year-old opponent often seemed overwhelmed by the force and length of Zverev’s punches.
With the score at 3:2, Zverev managed the first break in the second set, also because the German occasionally made a surprising stop. Everything pointed to a big victory for Zverev. But suddenly he could no longer maintain his concentration.
Sudden discomfort
When the German started the match at 5:3, he unexpectedly made four slight errors – and received a break out of nowhere. Apparently a malaise that Zverev did not describe in detail led to these dropouts.
Then Atmane suddenly turned up the heat, played courageously and aggressively and equalized to 5:5. The sentence threatened to tip in favor of the Frenchman.
But Zverev recovered, escaped into the tiebreak and regained his dominance. He won the second set 7:2 – and left the court as the winner.
