Alexander Zverev lives up to his role as favorite in the final of the ATP tournament in Chengdu, China and defeats the Russian Roman Safiullin.
The German tennis professional defeated the Russian Roman Safiullin 6:7 (2:7), 7:6 (7:5) and 6:3 at the 250 tournament in Chengdu, China, after a hard fight and more than two and a half hours of play.
Zverev has thus secured his second title this year. At the end of July, Zverev won the ATP event in his hometown of Hamburg.
Three break chances
“I had a very difficult time last year”said Zverev, looking at the phase since his serious injury at the French Open 2022: “But I’m coming back now and I hope it continues like this.”
In the first set, the German already had three set points when the score was 5:4 – and missed them all. It then went to the tie-break, which the Russian then clearly won.
Close outcome in the tiebreak
In the second set, Zverev initially missed two break chances and then immediately lost his first service game to 0-2. But he recovered from these setbacks and immediately equalized.
From this point on the game remained close and competitive. Both played their service games. So the tiebreak had to be decided again, which the German narrowly won 7:5.
Zverev stays focused
In the third set, Safiullin suddenly showed a phase of weakness and made previously unknown errors. Zverev coldly took advantage of the chance to make it 3-1.
As a result, Zverev remained highly concentrated in his serve games and left no doubt about his 6-3 set win and tournament success.
ATP finals are within reach
For Zverev, success also means that participation in the ATP finals from November 12th to 19th in Turin is becoming increasingly likely.
In the ranking of the year’s best, the German number one is in seventh place – the best eight professionals qualify for the prestigious annual final, which Zverev won in 2018 and 2021.