ATP Cologne II: Unstoppable! Alexander Zverev beats Diego Schwartzman and gets Cologne double
Alexander Zverev can't be beaten in Cologne. The German also won the second tournament in the Lanxess Arena. In the final, Zverev defeated Diego Schwartzman in an impressive manner 6: 2 and 6: 1.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Oct 25, 2020, 08:56 pm
Alexander Zverev has obviously come to the two home tournaments in Cologne's Lanxess Arena with big plans. After Germany's number one won the title at the home tournament last Sunday, Zverev also made it into the final at the second ATP 250 event, after being able to return the favor to Jannik Sinner for the last 16 defeat at the French Open yesterday. In the final, Diego Schwartzman was supposed to be the man who last caused forure on sand in both Rome and Paris.
But it became clear early on that Zverev wanted little to come up in this end game. In the fourth game of the match, the German fought his way with good serves from an initial pressure situation, increased the number of strokes in the next game and, after a long baseline exchange with a forehand stop, showed a lot of feeling - the first break of the match went to the local hero.
Diego Schwartzman had the chance to make up for the deficit immediately, but the Argentine missed a break chance. Zverev did better a little later. The 23-year-old benefited from three double mistakes by the French Open semi-finalist and thus got the double break. Zverev shouldn't let that go away, with his sixth ace in the first set, Zverev secured the first round.
Alexander Zverev went to work extremely offensively in this final, and in addition to his strong serve, he was able to use the forehand profitably again and again. At the start of the second set, too, the German had the chance to break into the lead early on, but Schwartzman fought sacrificially and was able to fend off a break ball in the first game. However, the 23-year-old didn't give up, walked through his own service game and gained the break advantage in the third game - Schwartzman was too harmless up to this point.
13th ATP title for Zverev
This should not change afterwards either. Zverev remained untouchable with his own serve and was also the much more active player on the field at Service Schwartzman. With another nice forehand winner, Zverev secured the 4-1 lead with a double break in the fifth game. The final of the second bett1Hulks, it seemed decided. It should be like that, Zverev had meanwhile played himself in a real run, beat the Argentine winner for winner on the ears. The German also set the tone in the following service game and found his first match point after just over an hour, which he knew how to use with the next forehand winner.
For Zverev it is the 13th title in his still young career. The German will take a break in the coming week before he goes to Paris Bercy for the last ATP Masters 1000 event of the season. After another week of breather, the Nitto ATP Finals, for which Zverev was last able to qualify, will finally conclude the 2020 game year.