Alexander Zverev's path back to his old strength is long, paved with numerous defeats. The tennis pro, who was seriously injured at the French Open last May, delivers a brilliant sentence against Andy Murray, but narrowly loses a long thriller.
Tennis Olympic champion Alexander Zverev suffered another setback when trying to return to his old top form. At the ATP tournament in Doha, the 25-year-old lost his hard-fought round of 16 match against former world number one Andy Murray from Great Britain 6: 7 (5: 7), 6: 2, 5: 7. For Zverev, who had a bye in the first round, it was already the fifth defeat in the eighth match in 2023.
As in previous encounters, Zverev, who suffered a lengthy foot injury in the French Open semifinals last June, was also changeable against Murray. In the first set he was able to take the serve from the three-time Grand Slam tournament winner twice - but immediately in the game he conceded a break himself. In the tie-break, 35-year-old Murray had stronger nerves: Zverev was able to fend off three set balls, and Murray used the fourth.
In the second set, the Hamburger found his rhythm better, his balls had a better length and his serve was much more constant and successful than his opponent. In the decisive third set, Murray and Zverev fought a duel at eye level until the German number one gave up their serve to make it 5: 6. Murray converted his second match point after 3:02 hours.
Marathon specialist Murray, who defeated Thanasi Kokkinakis in January after 5 hours and 45 minutes in the second longest match ever played at the Australian Open, meets French qualifier Alexandre Müller in the quarter-finals.
