The Olympic tennis champion beat the unseeded Portuguese 6:2, 7:5 in 87 minutes. The Hamburger’s next opponent is the American Taylor Fritz (No. 11).
“He’s a wonderful player, he’s just found his rhythm,” Zverev said about Fritz on Sky. Against Borges he “perhaps became too aggressive in the second set. I made mistakes that I shouldn’t have made.” In order to be successful at the upcoming French Open, he has to play his most aggressive tennis, and preparation for this is extremely important.
Zverev, who is still without losing a set at the clay court tournament in the Eternal City, started the match with a break, but gave up his service a little later to make it 2-2. However, as the first set progressed, Borges, who was in a Masters round of 16 for the first time, no longer won a game. The decision in the much closer second set came when the 27-year-old Zverev took the serve from his opponent of the same age for a 6:5 lead.
On the way to reaching the semi-finals in Rome for the first time since 2022, Zverev, who is in third place, now has a much more difficult task ahead of him. Fritz, number eight in the world rankings, beat eighth-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6:2, 6:7 (11:13), 6:1 in the round of 16.
2024-05-14 16:33:00
#Alexander #Zverev #quarterfinals #Rome
