Tennis Olympic champion Alexander Zverev clearly failed in the round of the last 32 players at the Canadian Open. The 26-year-old from Hamburg lost in two sets 1:6, 2:6 against the 37th in the world rankings Alejandro Davidovich Fokina from Spain. In the round of 16 of the Masters 1000 tournament, Fokina (24) now meets the Norwegian Casper Ruud, who prevailed against the Czech Jiri Lehecka in two sets.
A week and a half after his tournament victory on clay in Hamburg, Zverev never found his game against Fokina. After just one hour of play, the world number 16 had to. left the pitch with a clear defeat in their luggage. In the first round, Zverev had won convincingly against the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor.
Completely failed overhead shot
Should Zverev make it to the semifinals in Toronto, “he will go to the US Open as one of the favorites,” tennis icon Boris Becker said on Tuesday at a media event with a view to the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. There are now probably others favored. The hard court tournament in New York will take place from August 28th to September 10th. Last year, Zverev missed the US Open because of his serious foot injury.
Unlike Montreal, where Zverev triumphed in 2017, Toronto remains a bad place for the 26-year-old. The tournament alternates annually between the two metropolises. Zverev didn’t find the match at all against Davidovich Fokina. A completely unsuccessful overhead shot in the first service game was followed by two double mistakes in a row – the first break went to zero for the Spaniard. Although the Hamburger managed to win the first game on his own service, it stayed that way. The first set was gone after just 24 minutes.
In the second set, too, Zverev did not want to succeed despite a slight improvement in the error rate. He allowed himself to be broken twice again by the Spaniard, who had not won a single set in the previous three duels with Zverev, and also gave up the second round in just 38 minutes. Casper Ruud from Norway, number three, is waiting for Davidovich Fokina in the round of 16.
The former world number one Caroline Wozniacki meanwhile suffered a first setback after her successful comeback. At the WTA tournament in Montreal, her first tournament after a break of more than three and a half years, the 33-year-old Dane lost in the second round to the ninth-seeded Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova (Czech Republic) 2-6, 5-7. Wozniacki won her opening match against Düsseldorf-born Kimberly Birrell from Australia 6:2, 6:2.
Thomas Klemm Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6 Jörg Strohschein, Essen Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3 Petra Philippsen, Hamburg Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4
“It obviously didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but at the end of the day there’s a lot of positives,” Wozniacki said. “It’s going in the right direction overall and it was to be expected after not having played much in a long time.” Wozniacki has won 30 tournaments so far, including the Australian Open in 2018. She has been world number one for a total of 71 weeks. One of her goals was to take part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Wozniacki received a wild card for the tournament in Montreal. She had previously played her last match on January 24, 2020 at the Australia Open: At that time she lost in the third round to Ons Jabeur from Tunisia in three sets. She then resigned as announced to start a family. At the end of June, Wozniacki announced that she wanted to play tournaments again. She will also be able to start with a wildcard in Cincinnati and at the US Open next week.
2023-08-10 07:44:00
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