US Open: Zverev after hard work against Altmaier - "He manages to make good players play badly"
Alexander Zverev had a lot of trouble in his second round match at the US Open against Daniel Altmaier. The last two German women are eliminated.
by SID
last edit: Sep 01, 2023, 04:19 am
Alexander Zverev looked up into the bright New York sky, took a deep breath and then, visibly relieved, high-fived his stubborn opponent Daniel Altmaier. With an unexpected show of strength in the German duel, Germany's tennis star made it into the third round of the US Open - but Olympic champion Zverev has to improve enormously for a big coup.
The 26-year-old struggled for 3:43 hours with the world number 53, who is one and a half years younger. from Kempen, who played great at times. Then Zverev converted his first match point to make it 7:6 (7:1), 3:6, 6:4, 6:3 and move into round three at Flushing Meadows for the fifth time.
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"Daniel has the talent to get good players to play badly against him. That's also an art," said Zverev: "Tennis is a lot about feelings. You can find it in the match, you can lose it, I think that "I thought it was very good in the third and fourth sentences. That's when something clicked and then it was clearer."
Zverev on course for Sinner
Now the Olympic champion will face the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the former ATP Finals champion won 6:3, 6:4, 6:1 against Andy Murray, who triumphed in New York in 2012. The first really big challenge could follow in the round of 16 with world number six Jannik Sinner from Italy, who easily defeated compatriot Lorenzo Sonego. At the French Open, Sinner was eliminated in round two - against "favorite torturer" Altmaier.
The German women have performed worse than they have in 14 years. Eva Lys and Tamara Korpatsch were the last to say goodbye in round two. Qualifier Lys lost to the Italian Lucia Bronzetti 3:6, 2:6, Korpatsch lost to Lyudmila Samsonowa 3:6, 3:6. The last time there was a third round without a German player was at the US Open in 2009.
Zverev and Altmaier started the early shift on Court 17 - the game started at 11:30 a.m. local time - nervously, each serving three times until the score was 5:5. It was only in the tiebreak that Zverev, who had won the only direct duel so far in the first round of the Australian Open 2022 without losing a set, played with concentration and won the first round after 75 minutes.
Altmaier is not dissatisfied with the trip to New York
In the opening match against Australian Aleksandar Vukic, which was also played on Court 17, the German number one complained about the pungent smell of marijuana, but this time it apparently remained odorless. But Zverev didn't find a clear line in the second set either. "I played the first two sets more or less without a first serve and made more mistakes from the baseline than normal," he said.
Altmaier broke to 3:2 and finally to 6:3. Zverev seemed dissatisfied. “He hasn’t found his game yet,” said Boris Becker on sportdeutschland.tv. Former US Open champion Becker (1989) also saw former US Open finalist Zverev (2020) struggle more than expected. In the third set, the Olympic champion became more emotional and let out a “Come on!” out and showed his fist. Zverev used his 21st (!) breakball for the fourth break and 5:4.
Altmaier also kept the fourth round open. Zverev took the lead 2-1 with breakball 25 - only then did he act with the expected ease. "I tried my best," said Altmaier, "I take more positives from New York than negatives."
Here is the men's individual tableau
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