Alexander Zverev also lost to his Russian rival Daniil Medvedev at the tennis tournament in Rome. The Olympic champion lost in the round of 16 on Tuesday 2: 6, 6: 7 (3: 7) and, like last time in Monte Carlo, failed at third in the world rankings. There, after a close match, both had accused each other of acting unfairly. Medvedev once again complained about a spectator who disturbed him, but overall the game was fair.
Medvedev now surprisingly meets Yannick Hanfmann, who is in the quarterfinals of a Masters tournament for the first time. The 31-year-old from Karlsruhe won 7: 6 (7: 5), 4: 6, 6: 3 against world number six Andrei Rublev from Russia after a strong performance. Hanfmann is currently only number 101 in the world. After 2:33 hours of play, the qualifier converted his first match point with an ace and rewarded himself for a brave performance with the biggest success of his career so far.
Zverev’s double shift
“Of course I’m a bit speechless about the energetic performance that was today. If I’m healthy, if I’m fine, if things fit together, then I’m dangerous, especially on sand,” Hanfmann said on Sky TV. “Of course Sascha would be the best constellation, that would be cool,” he said before Zverev had to start the second part of his double shift in the same place – and lost.
The Hamburger won the continuation of his third round game against the American Jeffrey John Wolf on Tuesday afternoon 6: 4, 7: 5. On Monday evening, the game was canceled due to the bad weather when the score was 6: 4, 3: 3 from Zverev’s point of view and postponed to the next day.
Unfair player?
The first set against Medvedev was over quickly. In the second, Zverev braced himself against the impending defeat and even had a set ball. He then made too many mistakes in the tie-break, and after almost two hours he congratulated them fairly on their victory. As a result of the defeat, Zverev will fall behind Jan-Lennard Struff in the new world rankings and will not be the best-ranked German player for the first time since August 2016.
Before the match, Zverev reported that he last spoke to Medvedev at the tournament in Madrid. On Tuesday, he self-critically commented on his accusation that Medvedev was one of the most unfair players: “Perhaps it wasn’t so good of me to say that in the interview. It was right after the match. It might be better if I had come to him.” Medvedev’s reaction was “not that good either”. “Now we can look ahead. The rivalry should still remain fair,” said Zverev.