Zverev survives Griekspoor scare, reaches fourth round in Shanghai

  • Posted: Oct 08, 2024

Alexander Zverev held his nerve to survive the scare posed by Tallon Griekspoor, sealing victory on the eighth match point in an absorbing third-round clash at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

With the triumph, Zverev is into the fourth round of a ninth consecutive ATP Masters 1000, still alive in his quest for a second title in 2024. The World No. 3 regrouped from an out-of-sorts second set to prevail 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-6(2) and extend his lead in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series to 5-1.

“It was a tough match, going back and forth. I thought he was a bit lucky during the third set and I got very lucky in the tie-break, so we equalled each other out,” said Zverev, who is making his sixth appearance in Shanghai.

“It was an incredible match, he is someone that I always struggle against. We always have extremely tough matches and, for me, he should be a lot higher ranked than he is. He needs to look at why he is not playing like that every single week. He could be Top 15, Top 10 in the world.”

Zverev, who reached the 2019 final in Shanghai, will next face David Goffin. The Belgian is into the fourth round of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time since the 2022 Madrid Open after rallying back from a set deficit to overcome American Marcos Giron 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a gripping encounter.

Zverev’s resilience came to the fore in the dying embers of the opening set when he converted his second break point to swing the match in his favour. The 27-year-old, however, failed to capitalise on the momentum in an error-strewn set.

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Girekspoor, No. 40 in the PIF ATP Rankings, only hit two unforced errors in set two, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to levelling the match at one set apiece.

The Dutchman fended off eight break points, four of which were match points in the 12th game, in the deciding set to force a tie-break. It appeared as if the match was turning, but Zverev stormed to a 6/2 lead, producing four further opportunities to close out the clash.

However, an unforced error from the German followed by two big serves from Griekspoor meant that Zverev, bidding to continue his streak of reaching the fourth round of all ATP Masters 1000s in 2024, was forced to muster up some of his most gutsy tennis to close out a thrilling end to the match on his eighth attempt.

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