Alexander Zverev was only able to avert an early exit at the Australian Open with a lot of effort. The Polish Iga Swiatek also has big problems.
Alexander Zverev won on Thursday (January 18, 2024). Melbourne against the Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein with 7:5, 3:6, 4:6, 7:6 (7:5), 7:6 (10:7) and drew the first Grand Slamtournament of the season into the third round. In the fight for a place in the round of 16, Zverev will face Alex Michelsen from the USA on Saturday.
The 26-year-old scored his first match point against Klein after 4:30 hours. “To be honest, he deserved to win today, but that’s how tennis is sometimes”said Zverev On-court interview: “I would have preferred to win in an hour and a half, but he played incredibly well. I didn’t know what to do for a long time.” I thought: There’s a Qantas flight at eleven o’clock to Dubai and then on home.“
The 26-year-old hardly found his game against the furiously playing 163rd in the world rankings, and even a 1-0 set lead didn’t give him any self-confidence. There was no sign of his strong form at the start of the year.
In the Tiebreaker In the fourth set he kept the upper hand with strong nerves and then turned things up decisively in the fifth round. In his second appearance at Melbourne Park this year, Zverev seemed unfocused and lacking energy for a long time.
Iga Swiatek struggled in the third round
World number one Iga Swiatek barely made it into the third round. The 22-year-old Pole won against the American Danielle Collins 6:4, 3:6, 6:4 under the closed roof of the Rod Laver Arena. After almost three hours of play, she used her third match point to win. At the Yarra River, reaching the semi-finals in 2022 is their best result so far. . The Czech Linda Noskova is waiting for Swiatek in the third round.