Olympic champion Alexander Zverev only averted embarrassment at the Australian Open with great effort and thanks to strong nerves. The Hamburger survived a five-set thriller against Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein in the second round and only won after more than four hours of play with 7:5, 3:6, 6:4, 7:6 (7:5), 7:6 (10:7).
In the hunt for his first Grand Slam title, the Hamburg native has to improve significantly; on Thursday he wobbled worryingly. “To be honest, he would have deserved the win today more, but that’s how tennis is sometimes,” said Zverev in the on-court interview: “I thought there would be a flight home for me at 11 p.m. today.”
The 26-year-old hardly found his game against the furiously playing 163rd in the world rankings, and even a 1-0 set lead didn’t give him any self-confidence. There was no sign of his strong form at the start of the year on Thursday. In the tiebreak of the fourth set, he kept the upper hand with strong nerves and then turned things up decisively in the fifth round.
Under the closed roof of the John Cain Arena, he used his third match point in the dramatic final tiebreak. In the third round, Zverev will face the American Alex Michelsen.
Zverev started the year strongly with the triumph at the United Cup, but he is still looking for his rhythm on the Yarra River. As number six in the world, the Hamburg native is one of the favorites at the first major tournament of the year. His best result in Melbourne is reaching the semi-finals in 2020.
In the afternoon Jan-Lennard Struff is still fighting for the ticket for the third round, the Warsteiner meets the Serbian Miomir Kezcmanovic.
Australian Open: Maria clearly misses the third round – Swiatek continues to fight
Tatjana Maria was the last German tennis player to be eliminated from the Australian Open. The 36-year-old lost in her second round match in Melbourne to the 26th seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini 2:6, 3:6 and has to wait in Melbourne for the first third round of her career.
“It was a strange game, it was very windy. I’m disappointed with my performance,” said Maria. The mother of two from Bad Saulgau had prevailed in three sets against the Colombian Camila Osorio in her opening encounter, but on Thursday she had no chance for long stretches. Paolini used her second match point after 70 minutes of play and moved into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
The day before, Tamara Korpatsch (Hamburg) and Laura Siegemund (Metzingen) had already been eliminated in the second round, for the young Ella Seidel (Hamburg) and returnee Angelique Kerber (Kiel) it was over after just one game.
World number one Iga Swiatek barely made it into the third round. The 22-year-old Pole won against the American Danielle Collins on Thursday under the closed roof of the Rod Laver Arena with 6:4, 3:6, 6:4. After almost three hours of play, she used her third match point to win. At the Yarra River, reaching the semi-finals in 2022 is their best result so far.
Collins had eliminated the four-time Grand Slam winner and reached the final. In her opening performance this year, the American defeated the German returnee Angelique Kerber in three sets. The Czech Linda Noskova is waiting for Swiatek in the third round.