Tennis: Zverev-Aus in Rio: old mistakes and a “lively” opponent

Tennis-ace Alexander Zverev missed the semi-finals at the clay court tournament in Rio de Janeiro after a faulty performance. The top seeded Hamburger lost 6: 4, 3: 6, 4: 6 against Francisco Comesana from Argentina and had to cope with the next bitter disappointment at the second clay court tournament of the year. Zverev had previously failed in Buenos Aires in the quarter -finals.

In Rio, Zverev fought a competitive exchange of blows with Comesana, which the world rankings 86. after a good two and a half hours. “I kept saying how nice it is to be alive,” said Comesana after his greatest sporting success: “I really enjoyed the game.”

Zverev takes game interruption through drone with humor

As in the two rounds before, Zverev had lived up to the start of his role as a favorite and got the first break early on. But even in the quarter -finals, this was not enough for the world ranking runners -up to march smoothly. Zverev left his second serve and only came to win the set via another break.

The German even had to interrupt his service for a short time because a drone hovered over the square. After Zverev had passed a ball towards the aircraft with the permission of stool referee Aurelie (France), the troublemaker and Zverev disappeared the sentence profit.

Comesana plays into a frenzy

However, Zverev failed to remove the mistakes from the first round – inconsistency during the serve and a shaky return – and in the second and third sets it was less and less common to take advantage of its advantages in the crucial moments. At the same time, his opponent grew self -confidence with every point won.

Comesana impressively demonstrated this in the final round after Break deficit when he made the giant surprise perfect with five gains in a row.

While the Argentinian is in the semi-finals of a professional tournament for the first time, Zverev only has a look ahead. Already on Thursday, the Hamburger is opening at the Hartplatz tournament in Acapulco, Mexico. Zverev is also in position one there.