A German tennis trio led by Olympic champion Alexander Zverev has reached the third round of the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid. Zverev showed no weakness in his second round match on Friday evening against Croatian Borna Coric and won confidently 6:3, 6:2. In the fight for the round of 16, the 27-year-old will now face Denis Shapovalov from Canada.
“I felt very good. I missed a few chances, but I’m still happy that I won in two sets,” said Zverev, who noted with regard to his next opponent: “With Shapovalov, it really depends on what condition he’s in is. He is one of the most aggressive players on the tour.”
Zverev, seeded number four, has already won the clay court tournament in the Spanish capital twice (2018 and 2021) and has his highest win rate at a Masters 1000 tournament on the ATP tour at well over 80 percent.
Struff easily
Zverev’s Davis Cup teammates Daniel Altmaier and Jan-Lennard Struff had previously also made it into the round of the best 32. Inspired by his first tournament victory on the ATP tour last weekend in Munich, Struff beat the Spaniard Jaume Munar relatively easily 6:1, 7:5.
One day after his 34th birthday, the Warsteiner was particularly convincing in the first sentence. Struff will now face the Frenchman Ugo Humbert and should have a good chance in his current condition.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Altmaier clearly won against Frenchman Arthur Fils 6:2, 6:3. Altmaier thus successfully took revenge at the clay court event for the defeat at the tournament in Barcelona last week. Altmaier only needed 78 minutes for his surprisingly clear victory against the number 32 in the world. The strong-serving Pole Hubert Hurkacz is waiting in the next round.