Alexander Zverev gave up the quarter-finals at the ATP Masters in Monte Carlo after a long and convincing performance.
The tennis Olympic champion from Hamburg missed two match balls against world number five Daniil Medvedev and had to admit defeat late Thursday evening 6: 3, 5: 7, 6: 7 (7: 9). The last German in the tournament is surprisingly Jan-Lennard Struff.
Zverev had already served twice to win the match: 5: 4 in the second and third sets. But Medvedev fought back and after more than three hours triumphed for the eighth time in the 14th duel over Zverev. The first match between the two top players on clay only ended at 11:14 p.m. in the evening.
Despite the bitter defeat, Zverev is still getting closer to his best form after his serious ankle injury at the French Open last year. After the bumpy opening win over the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, he showed an upward trend in the second round against the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
Struff (32) had previously sensationally defeated Casper Ruud, fourth in the world rankings, 6: 1, 7: 6 (8: 6) and for the second time in his career reached a quarter-finals in the highly paid Masters series. On Friday (11:00 a.m. / Sky) the Warsteiner will play against Andrei Rublev, who is fifth seeded, for a place in the semi-finals.