US Open, Zverev: “I don’t have a girlfriend. The gold medal sleeps next to me “

Stand: 10:20 a.m.| Reading time: 4 minutes

Mith his 15th victory in a row, Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev has made it to the quarter-finals of the US Open. The 24-year-old from Hamburg won against South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner on Monday after a nerve-racking exchange of blows, especially in the third set, 6: 4, 6: 4, 7: 6 (9: 7). “I’m happy about where I am now and how things have gone in the last few months,” said Zverev. “Now I’m in the quarter-finals and from now on the matches won’t be easier.”

In the fight for a place in the semifinals, the fourth in the world rankings will meet Lloyd Harris from South Africa on Wednesday, who beat the American Reilly Opelka in four sets. “He’s playing incredibly at the moment and shows a very high level,” said Zverev about his next opponent. In Cincinnati he had last won in straight sets against Harris.

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For Zverev it was the 15th success in a row after the Olympic victory in Tokyo and the title in Cincinnati. In an interview on the pitch, the world number four joked that he cuddles with his gold medal every night. “I don’t know, I don’t have a girlfriend, I don’t have anyone next to me, that’s why the gold medal sleeps next to me.”

Fended off five set balls

Two days after the turbulent match against Jack Sock, when Zverev lost the first round and benefited from the American’s injury-related task with a score of 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3, 2: 1, he defended himself against the 20-year-old Italians took five set balls in the third round and converted the first match point after 2:25 hours. “It’s important to always find a way and I found a way today,” said Zverev at Eurosport.

At around 27 degrees in New York and not as humid and hot as last week, Zverev played in the Arthur Ashe Stadium, which was initially only sparsely filled, focused and full of confidence in his skills, but without shining spectacularly.

To 3-2, Zverev managed the decisive break in the first set. With a score of 5: 3, he still missed a set ball on serve Sinner, but after 41 minutes Zverev secured passage one. In the second sentence, the North German mistrusted the electronic line monitoring and was convinced that his ball had not landed out of bounds. But even that did not significantly irritate him. When a spectator shouted “Go Sascha”, he looked briefly in that direction and a little later secured the break to make it 5: 4.

Last German in the tournament

Last year, Zverev lost physically weakened against Sinner at the French Open in the round of 16. This time he wobbled in the third set when he fell 5: 6 behind. He fended off two set balls on his own serve and saved himself in the tie-break. There Zverev was 1: 4 and 4: 6 behind, but kept his nerve and made his third Grand Slam quarter-final this year after the Australian Open and the French Open perfect.

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A year after his traumatic final defeat against Austrian Dominic Thiem, when Zverev gave up a 2-0 set lead and was only two points away from the title, Zverev is aiming for the double of Olympic gold and US Open title on – which only Scotsman Andy Murray had succeeded in 2012 before him.

Zverev is the last German single player in New York after Oscar Otte was eliminated. The qualifier from Cologne had to admit defeat to Italian Matteo Berrettini 4: 6, 6: 3, 3: 6, 2: 6 in the round of 16 on Monday (local time). Otte injured his right flapping hand in the fourth set and was only able to continue playing with great pain. “The hand hurts a lot,” said Otte after the game at Eurosport. The all-clear had been given at the X-ray. “There was no clear fracture to be seen, but at home I should have an MRI done right away so that I can see a little more – or hopefully less.”

Otte stumbles overhead

Otte also showed a strong performance against Berrettini and kept the Wimbledon finalists in trouble. When the score was 1: 1, 15:15 in the fourth set, the mishap happened to the Cologne man. Otte ran an overhead ball backwards, but then stumbled and fell on his right hand when landing. The 28-year-old, who came as a complete surprise to the round of 16, then had to be treated on the pitch and was also given a pain pill.

Otte was able to continue playing and even won the service game. But the injury to the batting hand impaired him significantly, so that Berrettini had an easy game in the end. “Of course, the end was not as I had imagined,” said Otte after the game before the scheduled departure on Tuesday.

Berrettini will now face Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. The world number one from Serbia won his round of 16 against the American Jenson Brooksby with 1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 2, 6: 2. The winner of the duel could meet Zverev in the semifinals.