Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev (27) has suffered the next setback in his preparation for the French Open. At the ATP Masters in Madrid on Tuesday, the man from Hamburg surprisingly lost to the strong Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo 3:6, 4:6 and was eliminated in the round of 16 in the Spanish capital for the second time in a row.
Jan-Lennard Struff (34) was also the last stop on Tuesday. The Warsteiner lost the new edition of last year’s final against the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz after a great fight 3:6, 7:6 (7:5), 6:7 (4:7).
After his departure, Zverev appeared at a loss in the Sky interview. “I don’t really understand it because the shots weren’t that bad,” said Zverev: “It’s confusing for me when I have the ball in my racket like that when I’m serving at 227 km/h and a good rate and then lose 3:6, 4:6. I haven’t had that in a long time.”
Less than four weeks before the start of the second Grand Slam tournament of the year in Paris (May 26th to June 9th), Zverev is looking for his form on clay. After his early exit in Munich, the world number five had a good start to the tournament in Madrid with two confident victories, with the world number 22. Cerundolo, the two-time tournament winner (2018 and 2021), had problems from the start.
Zverev is annoyed by perimeter advertising
Zverev complained early on about what he considered to be too bright and therefore irritating perimeter advertising, but the Argentinian did not let himself be disturbed and played cheekily. After an early break in the second set, Cerundolo was unstoppable and used his second match point to win after 1:28 hours of play.
A little later, Struff’s run also ended. After six wins in a row, the Davis Cup player, who recently won the first title of his career in Munich, lost to Wimbledon winner Alcaraz. Last year he completely unexpectedly reached the final in Madrid as a lucky loser and brought Alcaraz to the brink of defeat. This time too, Struff kept the game open for a long time, but ultimately had to admit defeat after fending off four match points and 2:52 hours of play.
2024-04-30 17:52:00
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