ATP Geneva: Zverev wins first title of the year
Alexander Zverev won his first title of the year. The 22-year-old won the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Geneva in the final against Nicolas Jarry 6: 3, 3: 6, 7: 6 (8).
by Robert M. Frank
last edit: May 26, 2019, 08:43 am
After around six months without a title, Alexander Zverev (ATP 5) was once again able to win the tournament. The eleventh title of the German number one in the match against Chilean Nicolas Jarry (ATP 75), which was interrupted twice due to rain, was the first tournament victory since his last success at the World Cup in London in mid-November last year.
In the first set, the Hamburg native made the first break against the 23-year-old Chilean and led 3-0. The ten-time ATP tournament winner could no longer take this lead and won the first set 6: 3.
In the second round, at 0: 1, Zverev saw the first of two rain breaks. After an hour it went on, but this time the South American found the game better. The right-hander from Santiago de Chile took Zverev's serve from 3-2. After the match had to be interrupted again for a good hour at 5: 2, Jarry won the set 6: 3 in his second ATP final after Sao Paulo 2018.
In the third set, Zverev always presented with his service, but had to fight hard against an impending break in his 2-2 service game. Everything stayed in order until the end, a tie-break had to make the decision. Zverev, who was very concentrated in the tiebreak, won there in comparison to the encounter at the last and only duel in Barcelona to date. After initially three match balls of his own and two unused match balls from Jarry, Zverev won on the fourth attempt and almost five and a half hours after the start of the game (10: 8).
The ATP clay court tournament in Geneva, which was endowed with 586,140 euros, was used at short notice by Zverev as a preparation for the French Open in the last eight tournaments. The German number one did the homework at the fifth edition of the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Switzerland, even if he played in Geneva in games like Hugo Dellien (ATP 92) in the quarter-finals and Federico Delbonis (ATP 84) in Semi-finals and in the final not always fully convincing and had to go over three sets. At the Grand Slam in Paris, Zverev meets 29-year-old Australian John Millman (ATP 55) in the opening game.