Acapulco – The sun was almost up again when Alexander Zverev finally made it through to the second round in Acapulco, Mexico.
The Olympic champion converted his first match point against American Jenson Brooksby early on Tuesday morning at 4:55 a.m. local time – never before had a match ended later on the ATP Tour. The previous record was held by Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, who were on court until 4:34 a.m. local time at the Australian Open in Melbourne in 2008.
In Acapulco, after 3:20 hours of play, it was 3:6, 7:6 (12:10), 6:2 for Zverev, who had won the top-ranked tournament last year. After his converted match point, Zverev pointed to both his legs and looked at his team in the stands, where his girlfriend Sophia Thomalla and physiotherapist Hugo Gravil were also drawn from the marathon match. Even though I’m still not playing my best tennis – I’m fit, was Zverev’s gesture supposed to mean.
Now a German duel
“I’m happy to have become a part of tennis history. It was an incredible fight, it was an incredible match. Hopefully there will be a few more this week,” Zverev said after the match. “Acapulco is always special for me. It’s always super loud, the energy is incredible. At five o’clock in the morning, the stadium is still full. Nowhere in the world do people value tennis as much as here.”
The 24-year-old will face Peter Gojowczyk in the second round. The 32-year-old from Munich defeated American Brandon Nakashima 6:4, 6:4. Gojowczyk, ranked 95th in the world, was actually eliminated in the qualifying for the tournament, which is endowed with a good 1.8 million dollars, but slipped into the main draw as a lucky loser. For qualifier Oscar Otte, however, the tournament is over. The player from Cologne, who is nominated for the Davis Cup, lost to the eighth seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 2:6, 4:6.
Zverev showed a weak performance against Brooksby at the beginning. The German number one made 19 easy errors in the first set. The late start of the match did not seem to suit him at first. Zverev was often far too passive against the 21-year-old US boy. But at least he now discovered his great fighter’s heart. Zverev fended off two match points from the carefree Brooksby in the tiebreak of the second set before he took the fifth set point himself. The second set alone lasted 111 minutes. The American’s resistance was now broken, Zverev won the third set with aplomb and averted another sporting disappointment after his exit from the last 16 at the Australian Open.
