ATP Masters Miami: Alexander Zverev starts with a bitter defeat against Taro Daniel

“He had problems in the first set and I didn’t want him to find his rhythm again. Sometimes it’s about letting the opponent keep playing badly. It’s a bit of a dirty fight,” Taro Daniel summed up after his coup.

Alexander Zverev made 32 unforced errors against the world number 97, who had surprisingly eliminated Matteo Berrettini (Italy) in Indian Wells.

“Sometimes you don’t know why things turn out well and you succeed. You keep at it and it just happens. My plan is to have more and more wins like this,” Daniel said with confidence after the game.

After Doha, Zverev lost an opening match at an ATP tournament for the second time this year, his overall record for 2023 is 8: 9.

Zverev: Disappointment after improving form

At the previous Masters in Indian Wells, Zverev failed in the round of 16 at former world number one Daniil Medvedev from Russia and showed improving form. Miami’s exit is a major setback.

Jan-Lennard Struff was also the end of the second round. The Warsteiner had to admit defeat to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6:4, 6:7 (5:7), 4:6.

Alcaraz and Ruud unstoppable

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz did not reveal any weaknesses. The number one in the world, the tournament winner at the Indian Wells Masters last week, swept the Argentinian Facundo Bagnis 6-0, 6-2 off the field.

Casper Ruud also had a good performance. The third seeded Norwegian clearly beat Ilya Ivashka from Belarus 6:2, 6:3.

(SID)