Zverev fights in round two

After a weak start, Alexander Zverev reached the second round of the tournament in Monte Carlo. A Kazakh demands a lot from the tennis star.

Work victory at the start of the clay court season: Alexander Zverev reached the second round of the ATP Masters in Monte Carlo after a weak start.

The tennis Olympic champion from Hamburg defeated the Kazakh Alexander Bublik 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 4, but has to improve. Zverev is far from the top form of the 2022 season, which ended with a serious ankle injury at the French Open.

Nevertheless, the 25-year-old followed his Davis Cup colleague Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) in the principality to the next round. There Zverev meets the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut. Struff (32) is dealing with the Australian Alex den Minaur.

An important phase of his comeback begins for Zverev in his adopted homeland, he wants to “play his best tennis” on sand, he had announced. He hadn’t been able to do that on hard court, at the Masters in Miami he was last knocked out in the first round.

He also took the hip injury to Monte Carlo, said Zverev before the start of the tournament. There were no physical problems against Bublik (25), Zverev has room for improvement in terms of play. The first serve wobbled, the forehand lacked precision – and tactically Bublik remains a mystery for Zverev.

Zverev had clearly lost the first two duels in 2021 in Rotterdam and 2022 in Montpellier in the hall on hard court.

He was the clear favorite on clay, but initially didn’t do justice to his role. Only in the second round did he get a better grip on the unconventionally playing Bublik, but he also benefited from many mistakes made by his opponent. This is also the case with his third match point after exactly two hours.