Alexander Zverev waved briefly to the audience and looked more exhausted than happy. The German tennis star struck coldly at the hot start of the French Open and, as expected, defeated local French hero Benjamin Bonzi 6:3, 6:4, 6:2. At the start of his title mission, the 29-year-old showed a solid but far from perfect performance. In the second round, the Hamburger will face the Czech Tomas Machac.
“Benjamin is a great player, but I know that the further into the tournament we go, the better the opponents will be,” said Zverev during the winner’s interview on Court Philippe-Chatrier. He knows that he has to improve to achieve his title goal. But it is better to start a little slower and then improve in the tournament.
Zverev, who has always reached at least the quarter-finals at Roland Garros in the past five years, is considered the biggest challenger to top favorite Jannik Sinner. Due to the injured Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz not starting, he can only meet the Italian world number one in a possible final. Zverev is making his 41st attempt at his first Grand Slam tournament victory.
Perfect conditions for Zverev
Probably because of the heat, Zverev decided not to wear a dark outfit and appeared entirely in white. The external conditions on the main square with lots of sun and high temperatures were perfect for the game by the world number three. “At 32 degrees it’s like a hard court with powdered sugar on top,” brother Mischa Zverev said before the match on Eurosport: “He’s super fast, the balls bounce high.”
That suits Zverev – and he showed that at the beginning. His game was very powerful and varied, especially when serving on his own. The 2021 Olympic champion also successfully used the stop as a tactical tool again and again.
Zverev is dissatisfied in the meantime
However, he got the decisive break for the first set to make it 4:2 thanks to an avoidable forehand error by his opponent. Brother Mischa had already announced that Zverev would often play on the Frenchman’s “somewhat shaky forehand”.
But Alexander Zverev’s error rate also increased in the meantime. At times, the Hamburger was visibly dissatisfied with his racket, the court conditions and also himself. He often sought an exchange with his box. This was emblematic of his first loss of serve at 4:4 in the second set when he showed some lapses in concentration. But immediately afterwards Zverev hit back with another break win and finally won the round with a soulful stop.
That broke the resistance of Bonzi, who was able to take a set from the dominator Sinner at the Masters in Madrid. Zverev had an easy game from then on and ended the one-sided match in the third set after 2:08 hours with the second match point.
