Alexander Zverev smiled as he warmed up just before the start of the match. He looked easygoing and relaxed, much better than before his first game against South African Lloyd Harris, which he then won in three sets, but he hadn’t always played well on Tuesday. He had admitted that himself. At 8:23 p.m. this Thursday, he finally entered the Court Philippe-Chatrier, the square in the main stadium of the French Open. He held the hand of an enema child as he strolled past the exact spot where he twisted his ankle in the semifinals against Spaniard Rafael Nadal a year ago. Seven ligaments were torn in his right foot and he was out for seven months.
So this evening was also a special return, and Zverev succeeded: The 26-year-old defeated Slovakian Alex Molcan, 25, 86th in the world rankings, 6: 4, 6: 2, 6: 1 after 1:57 hours of play . This is his seventh time in the third round of the most important clay court tournament in tennis. There he meets the American Frances Tiafoe. For qualifier (and lucky loser) Yannick Hanfmann, 31, the event is over. After beating Brazilian Thiago Monteiro so furiously in five sets in the first round, the man from Karlsruhe lost 3-6, 3-6, 4-6 to Argentinian Francisco Cerúndolo.
Zverev’s game was quickly moved to the largest square in the facility
“I was so nervous to play here again today,” said Zverev on the pitch during the winner’s interview. “Even after what happened here last year, I still love this place.” He admitted he was glad to have found his form again. The injury-related withdrawal of the Frenchman Gaël Monfils, who was actually supposed to play the so-called night session against the Dane Holger Rune, meant that the game between Zverev and Molcan was moved to the Philippe-Chatrier court without further ado.
There are ten night games – starting Monday of the first week to the middle of the second week – at Roland Garros that an online streaming service has paid big bucks to broadcast exclusively. Zverev said in April, when he had played disappointingly at the BMW Open in Munich, that the pressure at home was affecting him, at least he always felt it was great there. Interestingly, he seems more comfortable in Paris, in a huge arena, in front of a lot more spectators.
Once Zverev even tried a tweener
He put Molcan on the defensive right from the start, building up the points he played had a lot more structure, he moved better than he did against Harris. Like Zverev, Molcan was born in 1997, they have known each other since they were young, but surprisingly they had never played against each other as professionals until this evening. In the first set, Zverev took the first service game from the left-hander to make it 1-0, he transported the break to win the set 6-4. Once Zverev even attempted a tweener, a punch through the legs while running backwards. He was clearly in a mood to play.
In the second set, too, he stole the first service game from Molcan, who sometimes had problems with the speed of Zverev’s shots. Another break followed, 6:2. The third movement ran in the same bar, the game was one-sided, and perhaps some in the boxes wondered whether it was worth buying an expensive ticket for this evening game. There would have been alternatives. According to the internet, there were 45 concerts in the city that Thursday alone, you could have gone to Harry Styles in the Stade de France, for example, if you like this kind of music.
Of course, you couldn’t blame Zverev, he just did his job properly. He even hit the field at 225 km/h. And in the end, the small band that creates the atmosphere in the evening played a little more enthusiastically and some very nice rallies made for more sympathy in the stands. There was laughter when Zverev said in the interview that he had slept until twelve o’clock and then again in the afternoon.