French Open: Zverev storms into third round with straight set victory
Tennis – French Open – Roland Garros, Paris, France – June 2, 2021 Germany’s Alexander Zverev in action during his second round match against Russia’s Roman Safiullin REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
PARIS—German sixth seed Alexander Zverev blew hot and cold with his serve but had enough artillery to take down Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin 7-6(4) 6-3 7-6(1) to reach the third round of the French Open on Wednesday.
The 182nd-ranked Russian went toe-to-toe with Zverev in the baseline battle in the opening set before the German got the crucial break in the 11th game.
Article continues after this advertisementServing for the set, Zverev committed two double-faults to give away the advantage and had another in the tie-breaker but he recovered to take the lead with back-to-back aces.
Zverev Express 🚂
No. 6 seed @AlexZverev dismisses Qualifier Roman Safiullin in straight sets: 7-6(4), 6-3, 7-6(1). #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/tJsx4OKxVy
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 2, 2021
Double faults continued to haunt the 24-year-old German in the second set as he smashed his racquet on the court in frustration and suffered a service break but he recovered spectacularly to take the set by winning five games in a row.
Zverev, who served 15 aces against 10 double faults, outplayed Safiullin in the third-set tiebreaker to set up a clash against the winner of the match between Serbians Laslo Djere and Miomir Kecmanovic.
