Alexander Zverev hung his head after the bad abrasion, threw his tennis bag on in frustration and disappeared into the dressing room. The German Olympic champion failed surprisingly early at the ATP Masters in Shanghai.
The 26-year-old from Hamburg lost without a chance in the second round on Friday on the third stop of his China tour against the Russian Roman Safiullin 3:6, 1:6. It was only at the end of September that Zverev, who was visibly lacking in energy in Shanghai, won the final in Chengdu against Safiullin in three sets.
This time Zverev, who had recently delivered consistently strong results, leaned on the net deep in the second set, shaking his head. Safiullin played absolutely brilliantly, he basically hit everything – the top German player, however, as number nine on the seeding list, couldn’t keep up at all. Safiullin now faces the up-and-coming American Ben Shelton. The 20-year-old recently caused a stir with his semi-final appearance in New York.
Zverev already had serious problems in the first set. His opponent positioned himself offensively in the field on the Hamburger’s second serves and returned strongly – the tenth in the world rankings couldn’t find a recipe. Things got even worse in the second set, as Zverev watched his opponent’s whipping blows in disbelief. After 74 minutes the one-sided match was over.
Yannick Hanfmann also missed the third round despite leading the set. Against the world number 32. Christopher Eubanks from the USA lost to Karlsruhe 6:4, 3:6, 2:6. After an intense 2:08 hours, Eubanks converted his first match point and will now face French Open finalist Casper Ruud.
2023-10-06 14:52:00
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