Alexander Zverev has reached the second round of the Australian Open. The Olympic tennis champion prevailed on Tuesday (January 16, 2024) in Melbourne in the German duel with Dominik Koepfer after a tough fight with 4:6, 6:3, 7:6 (7:3), 6:3, but showed a performance that can still be greatly improved.
Nevertheless, Zverev converted his second match point after 3:12 hours and moved into the second round of the men’s event as the second German after Jan-Lennard Struff. On Thursday, Zverev will face the Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein, who is still completely unknown to him.
Winner is self-critical
“It was my fault that I made it complicated. I played a few classes worse than in Sydney,” Zverev remarked self-critically afterwards. He’s just “not a good first-round player: I had to work my way in, it wasn’t a brilliant performance.”
In the match against his compatriot, who the victorious Zverev praised for a good performance, he “changed a few things to play better.”
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Dissatisfaction was obvious
Zverev got off to a very weak start in the Margaret Court Arena. The 26-year-old conceded an early break and dropped the first set after just 37 minutes. Instead of sixth in the world rankings, Koepfer dictated the events.
He repeatedly put Zverev in trouble with his powerful groundstrokes. Zverev’s dissatisfaction was clearly noticeable; he repeatedly argued and looked at his family in the stands.
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Work victory in the evening hours
In the second round, however, Koepfer had a small phase of weakness. Zverev used this to break to 4:2 and equalized the set after 1:22 hours. But that didn’t give Zverev any security.
The Hamburg native also found it very difficult in the evening when the temperatures were still mid-summer. With the score at 4:5, Zverev even had to fend off two set points before he won the round in the tiebreak after 2:30 hours. Now Koepfer’s resistance was broken and Zverev completed the victory.
Put up a lot of resistance: Dominik Koepfer
Holger Rune and Casper Ruud are also through
Other favorites among the men also showed no signs of being naked. Holger Rune (Denmark) won his first round match against the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka with some difficulty 6:2, 4:6, 7:6 (7:3), 6:4 and will now face the Frenchman Arthur Cazaux.
Previously, the eleventh in the world rankings, Casper Ruud (Norway), had overcome his opening hurdle without any problems; the three-time Grand Slam finalist won against the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6:1, 6:3, 6:1.