Tennis: With difficulty: Zverev wins German duel at US Open

Alexander Zverev patted his Olympic roommate Maximilian Marterer on the back in recognition and smiled after overcoming the feat of strength. With some effort, the Hamburg native won the German duel in New York 6:2, 6:7 (5:7), 6:3, 6:2 and reached the second round. After 2 hours and 53 minutes, Zverev converted his first match point in a tough match with many mistakes on both sides. In the next round, he will face the winner of the match between Frenchman Alexandre Müller and Adam Walton from Australia.

“It wasn’t easy, he knows me and he was my roommate at the Olympics. It was a tricky game,” said Zverev.

Zverev’s mother in the stands at the start

The 2021 Olympic tennis champion had several weak phases, especially in the second round, and was still far from his top form for the first Grand Slam title he was aiming for. In temperatures of around 30 degrees, Zverev made plenty of minor errors, threw his racket on the ground and repeatedly complained about his box, in which his mother Irina had also sat next to his girlfriend Sophia Thomalla at the beginning. Normally, she is too nervous to watch her son’s matches from the stands.

Marterer, who is number 100 in the world rankings, actually failed to qualify for the US Open and only made it into the main draw when the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori withdrew. At the Olympics in Paris, the 29-year-old Franconian and Zverev, who is two years younger, shared a double room in the shared flat of the German tennis pros in the Olympic Village.

Niemeier creates surprise

Jule Niemeier pulled off a small surprise at the start of the US Open and was the first German tennis player to advance to the second round. The 25-year-old from Dortmund defeated Ukrainian Dajana Jastremska 6:4, 6:7 (3:7), 6:4 in the heat of New York after 3 hours and 10 minutes. In the 2022 season, Niemeier had reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals and the round of 16 at the US Open. However, she then fell in the world rankings, and last year she even failed to qualify for the Grand Slam tournament in New York.

Zverev was unable to confirm his recent upturn in form. The dress rehearsal at the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati was promising despite a narrow three-set defeat in the semifinals against world number one Jannik Sinner. Before that, however, the 2021 gold winner had disappointed at the Olympics in Paris and also in Montreal, revealing physical complaints such as dizziness and coughing. In the heat of New York, Zverev was not affected at all, at least not externally.

Trouble after top start for Zverev

Zverev got off to an ideal start. After three minutes and a backhand error from Marterer, he took his opponent’s serve for the first time and remained confident with his own serve. Zverev had to fend off a break point from the underdog in the first set, but despite a few slight forehand errors in long baseline duels, he won the set confidently with an ace in just over half an hour.

The match became more balanced, and Marterer kept up well in terms of speed. Zverev’s first serve rate, and with it the number of quick points won, dropped. Zverev was initially able to equalize one break. In the tiebreak, however, the favorite kept complaining about missed balls, and shortly after a double fault to make it 5:6, the set was gone.

The frustration grew at first. When the score was 0-1, Zverev threw his racket lightly on the ground and repeatedly argued with his supporters in the stands. The small emotional outburst seemed to help: Even though he still made several mistakes, Zverev regained control of the match. After winning the third set, he took Marterer’s serve to nil to make it 3-2 – and didn’t lose another game.