MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Alexander Zverev took time to heat up and had to dig deep towards fellow German Daniel Altmaier in his first match of the Australian Open on Monday because the world quantity three kick-started his bid to add a maiden Grand Slam title to his Olympic gold.
The 24-year-old Zverev defeated the 87th-ranked Altmaier 7-6(3) 6-1 7-6(1) below the lights on the Rod Laver Arena to arrange a second spherical assembly towards Australian John Millman.
“Not a lot went to plan at this time to be sincere besides that I gained,” Zverev mentioned in his on-court interview. “But that’s how it’s generally. It is the primary spherical of a really lengthy event and you aren’t at all times going to play your finest tennis.
“It was an excellent match for me to get into the event and hopefully the following spherical can be higher.”
Zverev gained the lads’s singles gold in Tokyo in 2021 throughout a season which has by far been one of the best of his profession. He additionally picked up 5 different titles throughout the 12 months, together with two Masters 1000 trophies and the season-ending ATP Finals.
The 2020 U.S. Open finalist confirmed his frustration on events with double faults however was in any other case stable in his service video games, dealing with solely a single breakpoint in all the match – which Altmaier transformed to lead the third set briefly.
Zverev, who hit 14 aces and dedicated six double faults, quickly received the break again after which had 4 match factors on his opponent’s serve at 6-5.
Altmaier saved all of them to power a tiebreaker however the tall German, whose finest efficiency at Melbourne Park stays reaching the semi-finals in 2020, raised his stage to recover from the road and sealed the competition when his 23-year-old compatriot discovered the online with a return.
“I performed him a number of instances,” Zverev mentioned of Millman, who’s ranked 89th. “I performed him as soon as on the French Open which was five-and-a-half hours, 5 units, so … yeah, he is a really tough participant to beat
“Hopefully it will be one other enjoyable one, and I’m trying ahead to being again on court docket.”
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; modifying by Christian Radnedge)
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