German Alexander Zverev earned his 300th tour-level win on Thursday at the Erste Bank Open, where he defeated Australian Alex de Minaur 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
“I started on the Tour when I was 16 years old and now being 24, I’m still quite young, so I’m quite happy to have this achievement at an early stage in my career,” Zverev told ATPTour.com. “Hopefully there are a lot more coming.”
Zverev claimed his first tour-level victory seven years ago in Hamburg against Robin Haase. Now the German is 300-138 and his 68.3 winning percentage ranks sixth among active players, trailing only Novak Djokovic (83.2%), Rafael Nadal (83.1%), Roger Federer (82%), Andy Murray (76.5%) and Juan Martin del Potro (71.7%).
“This is definitely a massive milestone for me,” Zverev said in his post-match interview.
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A few victories stick out to Zverev, who is a five-time Nitto ATP Finals qualifier and the 2018 champion at the season finale.
“The most memorable one is the first one against Haase in Hamburg when I was 17. [I would also say my] first win against Roger in Halle, because it was in Germany as well… and I think the first tournament victory against Stan in St. Petersburg [in 2016],” Zverev added.
The Vienna second seed had to work hard to eliminate De Minaur. He powered through behind 17 aces and won 89 per cent of his first-serve points to reach the quarter-finals.
“I missed too many chances in the second set, I can’t do that. I was rushing maybe a little bit too much. I did too many unforced errors then and credit to Alex because he picked up his level,” Zverev said. “He saw his chance and he used it, so credit to him. But in the third set, I picked it up again and I’m happy [it went] my way.”
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/31d1jFa
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