Monte Carlo (AP) – Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev has moved into the round of 16 at the ATP tournament in Monte Carlo.
After a bye in the first round, the 24-year-old from Hamburg prevailed in his opening match in the second round against the Argentinian Federico Delbonis 6:1, 7:5 and has every chance of winning the tournament in the Principality.
After the surprisingly early departure of world number one Novak Djokovic, Zverev is the highest-ranked player in the field in his adopted country. Djokovic had already failed the day before in the clay court tournament due to the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. In the fight for a place in the quarter-finals, Zverev now meets the Spaniard Pablo Carreño Busta in the Masters 1000 tournament, which is worth around 5.2 million euros.
Zverev was last eliminated in Miami in the quarterfinals and suffered another disappointment on hard court in the USA. For the best German tennis player, the Montpellier final is the only final this year so far. The highlight of the clay court season is the French Open. The Grand Slam tournament in Paris begins on May 22nd.