With a convincing performance, Alexander Zverev has confidently reached the quarter-finals of the lawn tournament in Halle/Westphalia.
The 26-year-old Olympic champion, who was in the final of the ATP event in 2016 and 2017, easily defeated former top ten player Denis Shapovalov from Canada 6: 2, 6: 4 on Wednesday.
“I’m incredibly happy. Denis is someone who can play incredibly well on grass,” said Zverev: “I knew I had to be highly concentrated from the start. I’m very satisfied.”
Zverev, who had emphasized his problems with the green before switching from sand to grass, presented himself as focused and self-confident as in his opening win against Austrian Dominic Thiem. Shapovalov had little to counter his powerful first serve and found no recipe against the semi-finalist of the French Open, who now meets Chilean Nicolas Jarry.
Previously, Jan-Lennard Struff had proven that he coped well with his defeat in the final in Stuttgart. The top German player, who only just missed his first title on the ATP tour on Sunday, mastered his opening hurdle in Halle and made it into the round of 16 with a 6: 1, 7: 6 (7: 4) against the Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin .
There Struff, as the number 21 best German in the world rankings, has to deal with the Kazakh Alexander Bublik. The Warsteiner started aggressively and bravely against Safiullin, pulled away early and won the first set in just 34 minutes. In the second round, Struff was 1: 3 behind after an early break, but immediately increased again.