Tennis News: With tips from a friend? Zverev challenged against US pro

For his round of 16 task at the US Open Alexander Zverev can get valuable tips from his Russian training buddy Andrej Rublev. The German tennisThe 2021 Olympic champion will face Brandon Nakashima today at the Grand Slam tournament in New York. The American suffered straight two-set defeats against Rublev in two preparation tournaments in a row.

“I can perhaps ask Andrej what the tactics are,” said Zverev, and said of his next opponents: “He is someone who has had a lot of problems with injuries in recent years. But he is now playing outstanding tennis again. I expect it to be a difficult match. The two old duels with Nakashima were decided in his favor.

No more night shift for Zverev

Normally, the world number 50, who is in the round of 16 at the US Open for the first time in his career, should not pose any insurmountable problems for Zverev. The four-set victory against the Argentine clay court specialist Tomás Martin Etcheverry boosted his self-confidence despite a mediocre performance at the beginning. “I knew that I could win even when I had bad games. I showed that again,” said Zverev, who will make it to the quarter-finals of the US Open for the fourth time in a row.

After the third round match only ended at 2:35 a.m., Zverev will now be back in action in the afternoon. The round of 16 is not scheduled to begin before 4:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. CEST). In parties of the night session under floodlights, the two title favorites Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz were defeated before the late riser Zverev.

“I can understand why Novak and Carlos had such problems here at night,” said Zverev from his own experience. “It’s very, very different to play here at night. It’s very, very slow, the ball bounces very, very low. I’m glad we’re through.”

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+++ Editorial note: This report was created based on material from the German Press Agency (dpa). If you have any comments or questions, please contact [email protected]. +++

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