Olympic champion Alexander Zverev fails surprisingly early at the ATP Masters in Shanghai. He only manages four games against Safiullin
Alexander Zverev hung his head in frustration after the drubbing, throwing on his tennis bag and disappearing into the dressing room. The German Olympic champion surprisingly failed early at the ATP Masters in Shanghai.
The 26-year-old from Hamburg lost in the second round against the Russian Roman Safiullin 3:6, 1:6 without a chance at the third stop of his China tour on Friday. Only at the end of September, Zverev, who visibly lacked energy in Shanghai, had won the final in Chengdu against Safiullin in three sets.
This time Zverev, who had been delivering consistently strong results of late, leaned on the net deep in the second set shaking his head. Safiullin played absolutely superbly, hitting virtually everything – the German top player, on the other hand, as number nine in the seedings, was not able to keep up at all. Safiullin will now meet the up-and-coming American Ben Shelton. The 20-year-old recently caused a stir when he reached the semi-finals in New York.
Zverev already had a lot of problems in the first set. His opponent positioned himself offensively in the court on the Hamburg player’s second serves and returned strongly – the world number ten could not find a recipe. It got even worse in the second set, with Zverev stunned by his opponent’s whipping shots. After 74 minutes, the one-sided match was over.
Yannick Hanfmann also missed the third round despite leading the set. The Karlsruhe player lost 6:4, 3:6, 2:6 against the world number 32 Christopher Eubanks from the USA. After an intense 2:08 hours, Eubanks converted his first match point and will now meet the French Open finalist Casper Ruud.
