Zverev Beats Berdych For Madrid QF Berth

May112017

Cuevas to play third Masters 1000 quarter-final of year

#NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev booked a place in only his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final on Thursday when he overcame 2012 finalist Tomas Berdych at the Mutua Madrid Open.

The 20-year-old Zverev left No. 11 seed Berdych on 698 match wins after a 6-4, 6-4 victory in 75 minutes. He will next challenge Pablo Cuevas for the first time on Friday.

“Obviously today was a great match,” admitted Zverev. “But also the days before I played very well, against Marin [Cilic] yesterday and against Fernando [Verdasco] in the first round. I’m happy to be in the quarter-finals here.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to recover. I went to bed at about 3 a.m. because the [Cilic] match was done after midnight… That was a difficult thing, but I’m happy with the way I performed. Apart from maybe two games at 4-1 when I was up in the second set, everything else was very positive.”

Zverev converted his fourth break point opportunity for a 2-1 lead in the 40-minute opener. From 5-4, he then played with great poise to win five of the next six games to take a 4-1 advantage in the second set. Berdych recovered to 4-4, but dropped his serve to 30 with his only double fault of the match – much to his frustration. Zverev calmly closed out to love to improve to a 21-8 mark on 2017.

You May Also Like: #NextGenATP Coric Shocks World No. 1 Murray

Zverev, who leads the Emirates ATP Race To Milan for a spot at the 21-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals from 7-11 November, also reached the quarter-finals of this year’s Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Kyrgios). He has already won two ATP World Tour titles this season at the Open Sud de France (d. Gasquet) and at last week’s BMW Open by FWU (d. Pella).

Uruguayan Cuevas advanced to his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final of 2017 (also BNP Paribas Open and Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters) with a 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 victory over Benoit Paire, who beat World No. 2 Stan Wawrinka on Wednesday. It was Cuevas’ first victory over Paire in their fourth meeting.

Watch Live On TennisTV