That wasn’t necessarily a completely convincing performance from the last remaining tournament favorite, who struggled against a remarkably struggling underdog and was far from the form of the first two rounds. In the round of 16, a lot more has to happen again if the path to the first Grand Slam title is to continue, which now seems more open than ever.
4th set, 4:6, 3:6, 7:5, 2:5 – The Hamburger then makes up for it: he sees that Halys is far behind the line and makes a stop. Then throw in another ace. Then he frees himself well from a rally and finishes with a forehand longline. Halys seems increasingly exhausted, gets stuck in the net – and now serves against the loss of the match.
4th set, 4:6, 3:6, 7:5, 2:4 – Halys just doesn’t give up. He gets through his serve to zero. Also because, despite short interim highs, Zverev still plays too passively at times and leaves a lot behind.
4th set, 4:6, 3:6, 7:5, 1:4 – Zverev pulls a forehand way too far into the middle, but Halys does him the favor of just playing it back into the net. As of now, the local hero’s momentum from set number three has actually evaporated. He only stays in this game thanks to Zverev’s double fault number seven and the next stop error. With an overhead volley in his second attempt he made it 40:30 and made it 4:1 with a service winner. Is this the preliminary decision now?
4th set, 4:6, 3:6, 7:5, 1:3 – The rallies are now significantly shorter. Halys stays tuned, but is already pumping significantly more than Zverev.
4th set, 4:6, 3:6, 7:5, 0:3 – But Zverev is also still fighting for his stability from earlier phases of the game. A double fault at the start of his serve game. He responds with two forehand winners. Then he lets Halys come to the net with a stop and finishes with a backhand. And with a service winner he makes it 3-0. Is it happening really quickly now?
