Olympic champion Alexander Zverev has reached the quarter-finals at the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid in a hurry, benefiting from his opponent’s injury problems.
The Italian qualifier Lorenzo Musetti gave up after just 39 minutes and the score was 6: 3, 1: 0 for Zverev. The 25-year-old defending champion now meets Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the round of the top eight, who defeated Jannik Sinner from Italy 6-1 and 6-2.
At the start of the 6.74 million euro clay court event, Zverev had some trouble in the 4: 6, 6: 4, 6: 4 against the Croatian Marin Cilic on Wednesday. It went much faster against the 20-year-old Musetti, who had surprisingly reached the round of 16.
“Very high level of tennis”
In the first round, Zverev took the serve from his opponent twice. “I had the feeling that it was a very high level of tennis in the first set,” he said on “Sky” and showed understanding for Musetti’s task. “It’s not very easy for him, as an Italian he wants to be fit for Rome next week as well.”
After a service game won to zero at the beginning of the second round, Zverev received Musetti’s congratulations. The third in the world rankings immediately indicated to his coach Sergi Bruguera that he wanted to do another training session.
Local hero Rafael Nadal had a surprisingly difficult time making it into the quarter-finals. The 21 Grand Slam tournament winner from Spain won against David Goffin from Belgium 6: 3, 5: 7 and 7: 6 (11: 9). World number one Novak Djokovic went one round without a fight. Andy Murray was unable to compete in the classic against the Serbs due to illness.