French Open: Alexander Zverev with five-set victory in the round of 16
Alexander Zverev made it into the round of 16 with great difficulty at the 2019 French Open. The German number one defeated the Serb Dusan Lajovic with 6: 4, 6: 2, 4: 6, 1: 6 and 6: 2.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jun 01, 2019, 02:18 pm
By Jens Huiber from Paris
Alexander Zverev is not known as an early bird. On the other hand, not as someone who makes an early bed. On Friday evening, Zverev would have had a hard time: On the roof of the hotel that houses the entire family of German number one, a young singer of French origin offered a best-of of her successes, vocal safe and loud enough that the crucial points could be heard in the adjacent rugby stadium well after 10 p.m. Sleep was out of the question.
Alexander Zverev actually did not appear to be at the level of his creativity at the start of the match against Dusan Lajovic, gave up his first two service games, and at least managed an early rebreak. Once again, the favorite gave the signal for departure - by sending a ball from Court Simonne Mathieu on 2: 4 on the journey. Zverev gladly accepted the warning, after that Lajovic stopped playing in set one.
Zverev and Lajovic like five sets in 2018
Last year, Zverev and Lajovic had a duel at eye level, over the full distance, the German had finally prevailed as the fitter player. After the confident 6: 4 and 6: 2, who would have thought that this component would also come into play this time? Especially since Zverev showed himself to be the better player in every respect and, as the match continued, also got his problems with the serve under control.
# BETATHOMEFO #
It came out of the blue that Zverev lost his serve again at the beginning of the third set. Lajovic also seemed a little surprised, but gladly accepted his opponent's gifts. The 6: 4 for the Serb had to be seen as an offer from Zverev to take the booked court in the greenhouse a little longer. The 6: 1 28 minutes later, however, the alarm bells in Zverev's box rang. In round one, the number five of the tournament had to go over five sets, the affair against John Millman had lasted a total of 4:08 hours.
Alexander Zverev started the decision sentence with a break - and now developed more urge forwards. The double errors 13 and 14 in a row initiated the rebreak of Lajovic to 2: 2. Zverev immediately took the lead again, this time Lajovic helped with two wild mistakes. With the recent break to 5-2, Zverev had broken his opponent's resistance. And served after a playing time of 3:03 hours. In the round of 16 on Monday, Fabio Fognini is now waiting, who prevailed in four sets on the Suzanne Lenglen court against Roberto Bautista-Agut. Zverev lost to Fognini in Monte Carlo.