ATP Geneva: Zverev effortlessly moves into the quarter-finals
Alexander Zverev got off to a good start at the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Geneva. The 22-year-old defeated the Latvians Ernests Gulbis 6: 2, 6: 1.
by Robert M. Frank
last edit: May 21, 2019, 10:34 pm
Alexander Zverev (ATP 5) got off to a good start on his debut at the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Geneva. The German number one clearly defeated Ernests Gulbis (ATP 80) in his first game of the clay court tournament in Switzerland, which was endowed with 586,140 euros. After an opening defeat in Rome against Matteo Berrettini and previous two quarter-final defeats at the ATP tournaments in Madrid and Munich, Zverev made a very confident impression in his round of 16 in Geneva.
The native of Hamburg presented with a service game on the center court in Geneva, but had to give up his hotly contested second service game for 1: 2 after the intermittent 1-1 in a row. The reigning world champion not only succeeded in rebounding immediately, but the native of Hamburg did not let the 30-year-old Latvian out of the concept afterwards. With a powerful game, the ten-time ATP tournament winner won another four games in a row to win the set
In the second set, Zverev remained on the road to success and used his first breakball to score 2-0 in the first Gulbis service game before adding 3-0. As a result, the six-time ATP tournament winner from Jurmala came back to Zverev 1: 3. But there was nothing more for the veteran against a very constant playing Zverev. The fifth in the world rankings continued to pull away from the baseline thanks to powerful blows and well-presented attacks and ultimately won 6-1.
While the Gulbis tournament in Geneva is already over after his opening win against the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (ATP 71), Zverev can continue to improve his form for the French Open in Switzerland. In the quarterfinals he meets Bolivian Hugo Dellien (ATP 92), who prevailed in the round of 16 with 7: 6 (3), 6: 3 against Janko Tipsarevic (ATP 317) from Serbia.