Alexander Zverev doesn’t play well in Melbourne, but still gets through to the next round. Now an unknown opponent awaits.
Alexander Zverev has reached the second round of the Australian Open. The Olympic tennis champion prevailed in the German duel with Dominik Koepfer in Melbourne after a tough fight with 4:6, 6:3, 7:6 (7:3), 6:3, but showed a performance that could still be improved.
Nevertheless, Zverev converted his second match point after 3:12 hours and moved into the second round of the men’s event as the second German after Jan-Lennard Struff. There Zverev will face the Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein on Thursday.
Often problems in the first rounds
Zverev got off to a very weak start in the Margaret Court Arena. The 26-year-old conceded an early break and dropped the first set after just 37 minutes. Instead of sixth in the world rankings, Koepfer dictated the events. He repeatedly put Zverev in trouble with his powerful groundstrokes. Zverev’s dissatisfaction was clearly noticeable; he repeatedly argued and looked at his family in the stands. “I just always have problems in the first rounds,” Zverev said later.
In the second round, however, Koepfer had a small phase of weakness. Zverev used this to break to 4:2 and equalized the set after 1:22 hours. But that didn’t give Zverev any security. The Hamburg native also found it very difficult in the evening when the temperatures were still mid-summer. With the score at 4:5, Zverev even had to fend off two set points before he won the round in the tiebreak after 2:30 hours. Now Koepfer’s resistance was broken. Especially in the fourth set, he showed strong nerves and didn’t allow himself to be disturbed by annoying insects when serving before he secured the victory.
“I have to play better, that’s clear. But the first rounds are always about finding the rhythm,” said Zverev. Germany’s tennis legend Boris Becker also saw it that way. “I would call it a work victory. But today it wasn’t about a beauty prize, it was about making it to the second round,” said Becker as a TV expert at Eurosport.