Olympic champion Alexander Zverev caused a surprise at the start of the ATP Finals in Turin.
Alexander Zverev spread his arms and waved to the Turin audience: The Olympic champion disenchanted Carlos Alcaraz at the start of the ATP Finals.
The 26-year-old from Hamburg defeated the second-seeded Wimbledon winner from Spain 6:7 (3:7), 6:3, 6:4 and decisively opened the door to the semi-finals.
ATP Finals, red group arrow right ATP Finals, green group arrow right
“I’m happy to be here again. I missed it a lot last year,” said Zverev after his surprising success. Zverev had to sit out injured in 2022. “I knew that I had to serve well today. I managed to do that. I’m happy that I have my first win under my belt,” said Zverev, who hit 16 aces
Strong serve as a base
The tournament winner from 2018 and 2021, who beat Alcaraz with brutal service and a better balance of risk and safety, will face the Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrej Rublew in the group phase. The top two make it to the semi-finals.
Zverev, who caused a moment of shock in the third set with a fall that ultimately had no consequences and briefly brought back memories of his injury in Paris in the audience, started the prestigious end of the year as a clear outsider. Participation in itself can be seen as a success in the comeback year after the serious foot injury.
“Just enjoy it”
“I simply enjoy being among the eight best players in the world and being able to compete with them,” he said before the start at the Pala Alpitour, knowing that the tournament suits him – hard court, indoors without external wind influences, two sentences.
He also proved this against Alcaraz, who had clearly shown the German top player’s limits twice this season. The current world number seven from Germany did not win a set in both the round of 16 of the Masters in Madrid and the quarter-finals of the US Open.
Alcaraz with unusual weaknesses
In Turin, however, Zverev created his chances right from the start with a strong serve and an initially lower error rate than Alcaraz – but then missed four break points when the score was 3:3. Then the Spaniard, who had been a bit weak in recent months, was suddenly there and showed his class.
At the beginning of the second round, Alcaraz lost his sovereignty again, made simple mistakes and Zverev quickly moved ahead to 3-0. With three aces in one game he finally sealed the set win.
Zverev continues on Wednesday
His fall should have no consequences: “I didn’t twist my ankle, but slipped a little. I have some pain in my Achilles tendon. But I don’t think it’s anything bad. It’s nothing like Paris last year,” said Zverev.
Zverev now has a day off on Tuesday before things get serious again on Wednesday. Instead, the parallel group with Novak Djokovic is now called upon again; the Serb will meet South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner on Tuesday evening (9 p.m.), and Stefanos Tsitsipas and Boris Becker’s protégé Holger Rune will compete in the afternoon (2:30 p.m.).
2023-11-13 16:33:27
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