Tennis Australian Open
Strong Zverev moves confidently into the round of 16
Status: 20.01.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Was superior to his third round opponent: Alexander Zverev
What: REUTERS
After two mixed performances, Alexander Zverev shows his best match so far at the Australian Open. The German only falters briefly in the second set. He is also the clear favorite in the next round.
With his first comfortable victory at this year’s Australian Open, Alexander Zverev reached the round of 16 in Melbourne for the fifth time. The Olympic tennis champion won the first Grand Slam tournament of the season against the American Alex Michelsen 6:2, 7:6 (7:4), 6:2 on Saturday evening. Zverev scored his first match point against the 19-year-old American after just 1:59 hours.
Two days after his marathon match against Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein, Zverev was hardly challenged this time in the Rod Laver Arena. In the fight for a place in the quarter-finals, the 26-year-old will face the Briton Cameron Norrie on Monday, who defeated the Norwegian Casper Ruud in four sets. Zverev has won all four duels with Norrie so far and hasn’t lost a set.
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“My father’s tactics, who is also my coach, were great today. Hit more winners and make fewer simple mistakes,” said Zverev in the humorous interview with the winner on the pitch. “That’s really easy. But I’m glad it worked out so well today.”
Zverev had everything under control against Michelsen from the start. Unlike in the second round against Klein, the Hamburg native went into the game with the right attitude from the start. He took serve from Michelsen for the first time to make it 2-1, and after just over half an hour Zverev had secured the first set.
In the tiebreak, Zverev was back on top
Zverev also managed a quick break in the second round. The young American simply lacked the playful means to put Zverev in danger. But then Zverev had a few lapses in concentration and lost his service out of nowhere. Michelsen now hit a few strong shots, but Zverev was back on top in the tiebreak and took the second set. In the third round he quickly pulled away and completed his trouble-free progress in under two hours.
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Wimbledon winner Carlos Alcaraz is also still on track. The Spanish world number two benefited in his third round game from the injury-related retirement of his Chinese opponent Shang Juncheng, who, from Alcaraz’s point of view, could no longer continue playing when the score was 6:1, 6:1, 1:0. The Spaniard is now in the round of 16 in Australia for the first time. Last year he missed the first Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season due to an injury.
“Of course that’s not the way you want to progress,” said Alcaraz after the one-sided game. “But I’m happy with the way I’m playing. I’m happy that I’m standing here for the first time in the second week,” said Alcaraz (20) after the encounter against the 18-year-old Chinese. It was the first time on the professional tour that Alcaraz had to compete against a player younger than him. There could be a duel with Zverev in the quarterfinals.
The world number one is out
Before that, Alcaraz will play against the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, who prevailed in five sets against last year’s semi-finalist Tommy Paul from the USA and fended off two match points in the fourth set. Kecmanovic had previously won against Jan-Lennard Struff in five sets after defending two match points.
In the women’s category, world number one Iga Swiatek was completely unexpectedly eliminated in the third round. The 22-year-old Pole lost to the Czech Linda Noskova 6:3, 3:6, 4:6. For Swiatek it was the first defeat after 18 wins in a row. Among other things, the Pole won the WTA finals in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of last year.
Noskova is in the round of 16 for the first time in one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. Against Swiatek she converted her first match point after 2:20 hours and caused the biggest surprise so far at the current Australian Open.
