Fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev advanced to the fourth round of the French Open on Saturday, staging a furious rally to fend off Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands in a five-set marathon.
The German need 4hr 13min to eliminate Griekspoor 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (10-3) on the clay courts at Roland Garros in Paris. And he came back from a fifth-set deficit, down a double break in a match littered with break opportunities.
Griekspoor broke Zverev to open the fifth set and again in the fifth game to take a 4-1 lead. But Zverev evened the set at 4-4, breaking his opponent in Griekspoor’s next two service games, aided by three double faults. In the tiebreaker Griekspoor failed to win a point on five of his six serves.
The Dutchman was looking for his third top-10 win and his first appearance in the fourth round of a grand slam. He was forced to play defensively throughout, fighting off 13 of 18 break points.
Also advancing Saturday were fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Australia’s Alex de Minaur, the 11th seed. They will meet in the fourth round.
Medvedev knocked out the Czech Tomas Machac 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4. De Minaur was a winner over Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
Saturday’s play started with the continuation of two matches suspended Friday due to rain. No. 21 Félix Auger-Aliassime of Canada took out No 15 Ben Shelton 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 to move on to a fourth-round match against Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, the third seed.
“For me today, the things that were in my control I did really well,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I am pleased with how I handled the match and gave him difficulty. I was able to put a lot of returns in and force his targets on first serve.
“He was not getting as many free points on that serve that he usually gets, so we had to engage in a rally every time and I think that paid off as the match went on.”
In the other suspended match, eighth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland topped Denis Shapovalov of Canada 6-3, 7-6 (0), 4-6, 6-1 to earn his 200th tour-level career victory. (Reuters)
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A super comeback there, Zverev resurrecting himself from the depths of 1-4 down in the fifth set to reach the last 16 in Paris for the seventh consecutive time.
That’s all from us today, we’ll be back tomorrow. Have a lovely evening.
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