Alexander Zverev fails in Monte Carlo despite catching up

Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev has already failed in the round of 16 at the Masters 1000 tournament in his adopted home of Monte Carlo. The 26-year-old lost his third round match on Thursday against Greece’s tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas despite a remarkable comeback in the second set 5:7, 6:7 (3:7). For Jan-Lennard Struff it was also the end of the round in the round of 16 after a 4:6, 2:6 against Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner from Italy.

In their 15th direct duel on the Court des Princes, Zverev and Tsitsipas fought a close first set in which little things made the difference. Tsitsipas, who has not yet been in top form this year, was a little more determined in the rallies than his German rival.

Tsitsipas calls it an “adventure”

At the beginning of the second round, Zverev again carelessly missed a chance for an early break – then an inexplicable collapse followed. With a double break and confident service games, Tsitsipas moved ahead to 5-0. When he had nothing left to lose, Germany’s top player found his way back into the match. He fended off two match points and, among other things, forced his opponent into the tiebreak by winning five games in a row.

There he made a few too many mistakes again and suffered his tenth defeat against the 2023 Australian Open finalist after 2:07 hours. Afterwards, Tsitsipas spoke of an “adventure” and said he doesn’t experience a match like that “every day”. The Greek said the match was “very unusual”: “I’m just trying to find out what happened.”

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The Hamburg native Zverev missed his third quarter-final appearance in Monte-Carlo after 2018 and 2022 on his mother’s birthday. Tsitsipas will now face the Russian Karen Khachanow, who surprisingly defeated fourth-seeded compatriot Daniil Medvedev in two sets on Thursday.

Struff initially kept up well against the big favorite Sinner on Court Rainier III, but then the world number two from Italy showed his class more and more. Sinner is also continuing its triumph on sand. The sporting highlight of the clay court season is the French Open, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, which begins in Paris at the end of May.