Alexander Zverev: No. 1 seed suffers shock second-round defeat at Indian Wells
Alexander Zverev‘s hopes of becoming the men’s world No. 1 suffered a blow on Friday as he crashed out of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells in the second round following a shock defeat to Tallon Griekspoor.
Zverev began the tournament as the top seed, in the absence of world No. 1 Jannik Sinner who is serving a three-month ban after testing positive for a banned substance, and he had a golden opportunity to close the gap to the Italian player in the ATP world rankings.
But, despite winning the first set against Griekspoor, the world No. 2 eventually succumbed to a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) defeat in his opening game at the tournament.
The possibility of becoming world No. 1 was on Zverev’s mind “in the beginning,” he told reporters after the game. “Now it’s less because I’m just playing terrible.”
“I can sit here and have excuses but at the end of the day, I’m just not playing good tennis at the moment. It’s as simple as that,” the 27-year-old German said.
Zverev has struggled to produce the same level of tennis that took him to the Australian Open men’s final in January. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
After he won the first set, Zverev slumped to a 5-2 deficit in the second, then mounted a comeback to lead 6-5 but he conceded a break at the crucial moment and failed to serve out the match.
Griekspoor pounced in the tiebreak, winning the set and gaining a foothold in the match when Zverev hit a routine forehand long.
The match remained evenly poised during the third set until Griekspoor broke Zverev in the 11th game and had an opportunity to serve for the win at 6-5, but he let a remarkable 15-minute long game slip away from him as he failed to convert five match points.
In the end, that was no matter for the world No. 43 who recovered in the tiebreak to seal the win on his sixth match point, falling to his knees immediately afterwards to celebrate one of the biggest wins in his career so far.
Tallon Griekspoor celebrates his win against Zverev. Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images via Reuters
“It was such a mental thing. I lost to (Zverev) five times last year and had absolute heartbreak at Roland Garros where I was up a double break in the fifth,” Griekspoor told reporters afterwards, per the ATP Tour.
“I played so many battles against him and had chances but they all went his way. I am incredibly proud of myself from this performance and to get it over the line.”
Elsewhere in the tournament, No. 4 seed Casper Ruud also succumbed to a shock defeat against the USA’s Marcos Giron.
Source: edition.cnn.com