Monte Carlo (AP) – Germany’s best tennis player Alexander Zverev has reached the quarterfinals at the ATP tournament in Monte Carlo.
Despite a break deficit in both sets, the 24-year-old Olympic champion prevailed 6: 2, 7: 5 against the Spaniard Pablo Carreño Busta. At 5: 4 in the second set, Zverev missed two chances when Carreño Busta served to win the round of 16. With a net attack he then used his fourth match point at 6:5.
“I’m satisfied. It was a relatively high level for the second clay court match of the season. I’m happy to be ahead in two sets,” said Zverev on Sky. In the second sentence he initially lost concentration, he said in an interview on the pitch. In the match for the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 clay court tournament, which is worth around 5.2 million euros, the top German player is now up against Jannik Sinner from South Tyrol. The world number 12. won against the Russian professional Andrei Rublev 5:7, 6:1, 6:3.
Against the world number 19. Carreño Busta lost Zverev his first service game in both sets to make it 0-1, but made up for the deficit in each case. With four game wins in a row, the number three in the world laid the basis for winning the first set. In the second period, Hamburg equalized again to make it 3:3.
In his opening match in his adopted country, Zverev held his own against Argentinian Federico Delbonis 6: 1, 7: 5. In the first round he had a bye as number two on the seeding list. Because the Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic left surprisingly early, Zverev is the highest-ranked player in the field. In Monte Carlo he is hoping for his second final of the year.