Tennis star Alexander Zverev reached the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid on a night shift. The 29-year-old beat Jakub Mensik (20) from the Czech Republic 6:4, 6:7 (4:7), 6:3 in the round of 16. The victory of the world number three was only determined at 1:22 a.m. due to the late start and game duration of 2:18 hours. “I’m definitely happy with the match and the win,” said Zverev.
In the fight for the semi-final ticket, the world number three will face the Italian Flavio Cobolli, who recently defeated Zverev in the semi-finals in Munich. Zverev is in the top eight at the clay court tournament in the Spanish capital for the sixth time.
Bayern fan Zverev had hoped that the women’s match between Aryna Sabalenka and Hailey Baptiste, which was scheduled before him at the Manolo Santana Stadium, would be drawn out so that he could perhaps still see something of Munich’s Champions League smash at Paris St. Germain. The world number one Sabalenka from Belarus and the American did him a favor; it was only after 2:30 hours that Baptiste’s surprise victory was clear after three sets.
The bat flies, the towel has to come
Zverev was then allowed onto the pitch – and was completely convincing in the first set. But in the second round Mensik was the slightly better player, while Zverev made more mistakes. When the score was 1:2 in the third set, Zverev fired his racket to the ground out of frustration, and shortly afterwards he had to wipe sand out of his eyes with a towel. But Zverev fought and finally won with the first match point.
Zverev did not notice any physical limitations, at least externally. The day before, the 2021 Olympic champion reported physical problems in the second set after winning the match against Frenchman Terence Atmane, without naming them specifically.
Along with the Italian world number one Jannik Sinner, Zverev is the biggest candidate for the title in the tournament, which is endowed with around 8.2 million US dollars and is seen as a pointer to the clay court classic French Open from May 24th.
Sinner against Spain’s “diamonds”
Sinner moved into the quarter-finals with a 6:2, 7:5 win against Briton Cameron Norrie. A very interesting opponent is waiting for the South Tyrolean: The 19-year-old Rafael Jodar continued his successful run with a 7:5, 6:0 against the Czech Vit Kopriva. The Spaniard Jodar had already stormed into the semi-finals at the ATP tournament in Barcelona and was only defeated there by the eventual winner Arthur Fils from France.
“What a talent!!!,” enthused tennis icon Boris Becker recently on the X platform. Spain has “another diamond” in tennis. According to data providers, only three Spaniards have reached the quarterfinals as teenagers at the tournament in Madrid since its premiere in 2002: the 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner Rafael Nadal and the current world number two Carlos Alcaraz, who is missing from this year’s edition injured.
