Two weeks before the French Open, Alexander Zverev wants to get into top form on clay. The Olympic champion has shown no weakness so far in Rome
Tennis pro Alexander Zverev has completed his compulsory task at the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome with aplomb and reached the last sixteen.
The Olympic champion beat the Italian Luciano Darderi 7:6 (7:3), 6:2 in the third round and was able to rely on his strong serve, among other things. Zverev only had to fend off one break point in the match and defeated the 54th-ranked player in the world after a total of 1:47 hours.
“He’s young, he’s up-and-coming. I don’t know what the Italians eat, they have a lot of strong young players,” joked Zverev afterwards. “It’s going well so far, the opponents will be tougher. “
Zverev now faces Borges from Portugal
In the first set, outsider Darderi put up a good fight and it was only after more than an hour that Zverev took the set with a successful forehand volley. With the first break to make it 3:1, the 27-year-old made the preliminary decision a little later. Zverev also goes into the round of the best 16 as the favorite: The Hamburg native will face the Portuguese Nuno Borges, who defeated Francesco Passaro from Italy 4:6, 7:6 (10:8), 7:6 (7:4).
Two weeks before the start of the French Open in Paris, Zverev wants to continue playing in top form. So far it has been an unsatisfactory season for him on clay. At the Masters tournaments in Monte-Carlo and Madrid, Germany’s top player failed to reach the round of 16, and at his home event in Munich he reached the quarter-finals.
In Rome, Zverev is seeded third and is hoping to reach his first singles final this year. Top seed Novak Djokovic surprisingly lost in the third round to Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo 2:6, 3:6.
