US Open: Alexander Zverev after a tough fight in round 2
Alexander Zverev has reached the second round at the US Open 2020. In a hard-fought opening game, he beat South African Kevin Anderson in four sets.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Aug 31, 2020, 10:58 pm
With 7: 6 (2), 5: 7, 6: 3 and 7: 5, Zverev won after a playing time of 3 hours and 7 minutes. "Kevin is not someone you normally play against in the first round," explained Zverev. Background: The 34-year-old Anderson is only placed 117th in the world after a long injury period. In 2017 he was in the final of the US Open and fifth in the ATP world rankings.
Zverev started the match nervously and with the trembling arm when serving, it made two double errors in the first service game - the Hamburger has been struggling with his second serve for months. Then, however, he stabilized and hit the set at 5: 4, but Anderson equalized. In the tie-break, however, Zverev quickly took the lead.
Set two was even, Anderson made the decisive break when Zverev hit the ball out of the box. The possibly decisive scene: in set three, when Zverev defended two breakballs at 1: 1 from Anderson, who in turn gave a 40: 0 on his own serve out of hand.
Zverev meets Brandon Nakashima, the number 223 in the world and in New York with a wildcard at the start.