Alexander Zverev has the Australian Open Reached the quarterfinals, beating Francisco Cerúndolo of Argentina 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. The world number three showed a highly concentrated performance in the John Cain Arena and converted his match point after 2:12 hours.
Zverev moved in for the fifth time Melbourne into the round of the top eight, Boris Becker only managed to do so four times in his career. On Tuesday, Zverev now faces his first big challenge in the tournament: a possible duel with Daniil Medvedev, who leads Zverev 14-8 on the record.
Best match so far
Zverev smiled happily at the audience after the last point and said afterwards that he was “very happy” with his performance. To reach the quarter-finals you have to play well, he said, pointing to the “high level” in the final sets. At the same time, he announced that he hoped to play even better in the next – “hopefully” – three matches.
By making it into the top eight, Zverev further expanded his Melbourne record: he is in the quarter-finals there for the fifth time. In the race for his first Grand Slam title, only three wins separate him from the big goal.
Loud support for Cerúndolo
Zverev’s service game was stable from the start, while Cerúndolo’s second serves repeatedly remained slow and did not even reach 150 km/h on several occasions. Zverev took advantage of this consistently, got two breaks and decided the first set after half an hour. Argentinian fans caused a stir with chants like “we have to win“, in German “we have to win”, for atmosphere, but Zverev stayed on course.
His forehand, long seen as a weak point, once again worked reliably: he now hit more winners with his forehand than with his backhand. He also won the second set – after exactly one hour – and was no longer deterred in the third round despite Cerúndolo’s stabilized performance. With the win, Zverev now has a balanced record of 3:3 against the clay court expert from Argentina.
