Alexander Zverev started the ATP Finals of the eight best tennis players of the year with a clear defeat. The German number one had to admit defeat to the Russian Daniil Medvedev 3: 6, 4: 6 in London on Monday evening and showed an overall disappointing performance. Especially the own serve caused big problems for Zverev. Medvedev used his first match ball after 1:29 hours.
Zverev actually got off to a good start against Medvedev and immediately took the serve from the Russian. But overall the German seemed a little inhibited in the almost deserted O2 arena and never really found his rhythm. The native of Hamburg also gave his first service and revealed his big problems with his own serve that evening. With three double errors, Zverev virtually equalized his opponent.
In total, Zverev made seven double errors in the first round. Most recently, the 23-year-old seemed to have got his service problems under control. In his two tournament victories in Cologne and in the final in Paris, where he also lost to Medvedev, Zverev had served well. But at the start of the ATP Finals, which Zverev had won in 2018 after victories against Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, the serve was suddenly gone again.
Medvedev took advantage of this and took the first set after 52 minutes without even playing his best tennis. The second round remained balanced until the score was 3: 3. Then Zverev gave up his service again and had to admit defeat a little later.
Easy game: Novak Djokovic beats Diego Schwartzman confidently.
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Image: dpa
In the first game of the day, world number one Novak Djokovic celebrated an easy opening win against the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman. The 33-year-old Serb easily prevailed 6: 3, 6: 2 and will now play against Medvedev on Wednesday. Zverev then meets Schwartzman.
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