Sascha Zverev is used to struggle in the first matches of his tournaments. Quite often, the German needs some time to adapt to the new conditions and that was exactly what has happened in Shenzhen.
Zverev had to face die-hard Steve Darcis in the opener and he was in huge trouble twice after he lost the opener 6-4. In the second set, he was 1-3 down before winning 3 consecutive games (4-3) and conquer the following tiebreak at 5 before Darcis failed to serve out the match on a 6-5 scoreline. The German was in a desperate position also in the 3rd set when he was 1-4 down. He recovered that break in a gigantic 7th game (3-4) just before going to the breaker when he was 2-5 down. When Sascha looked doomed to lose this contest he conquered the following 5 points to finally win this battle 4-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (5) in 2 hours and 48 minutes.
After the match, Sascha commented “I’m just happy to go through. I was down a break in both sets and it’s good to win those matches”
Next vs. Dzumhur
Sascha will play Damir Dzumhur in the next round. They have never played each other so far.
| HE NEVER GIVES UP |
| Embed from Getty Images |
