ATP Masters Miami: Alexander Zverev back in the valley of tears
For Alexander Zverev , the first ATP Masters of the year ended quickly. In Miami, Germany's top player was defeated by the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori and showed old bad habits.
by SID
last edit: Mar 27, 2021, 12:48 pm
Brenda Patea is currently giving deep insights into her soul life via Instagram. Two weeks after the birth of Baby Mayla, she describes "states of exhaustion, deep sadness and insomnia" in the puerperium, but "all mothers have to go through it". After exhausting days she is feeling better now, but "who knows why I cried every 5 minutes?"
Probably not about the father of the child: According to Patea's request, Alexander Zverev should be excluded from custody, she said in an RTL interview. And also professionally for Germany's best tennis player, shortly after winning the tournament in Acapulco, things are not going so well at the moment: At the first ATP Masters of the year in Miami, to which he was one of the favorites, Zverev lost his opening match against the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori with 6: 1, 3: 6, 1: 6.
"I don't know how I shot this match myself," said the amazed Ruusuvuori, number 83 in the world, after the biggest win of his career. He didn't have to shoot it alone, Zverev actively helped. After a sovereign first set, in which he showed everything that makes his game on a good day, the 23-year-old completely lost the thread in the second round. He couldn't get to the aggressive game of the 21-year-old Finn, who had 14 break chances in the second set alone and used four of them.
Zverev leaves the stadium as quickly as possible
After the break to 2: 3, Zverev fell into old behavior patterns. Furious, he slammed his bat on the hard court, received a brief admonition from chair referee Mohamed Lahyani, complained about the rallies and could no longer find the necessary calm and serenity. In addition, the world number seventh did not seem to be physically up to date: tapes on the left shoulder, on the left thigh and at the beginning of the match also on the right arm indicated possible muscular problems.
In the third set, Zverev's resistance was finally broken. The Hamburger moved poorly, was often not in the right position to the ball and kept trying to score with aces. In the long rallies, Zverev was always the second winner, after a little more than two hours Ruusuvuori sank the match with a forehand winner along the line.
Zverev did not comment after the defeat, almost in a hurry, he left the Hard Rock Stadium, where he only lost in the final against John Isner (USA) in 2018. Where Zverev starts the clay court season is open, the tournaments in Marrakech / Morocco, Marbella / Spain and Cagliari / Italy will be available from April 5th.