Alexander Zverev scrapes past Russian qualifier
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(7/4), 6-3, 7-6(7/1) to reach the third round of the French Open yesterday.
The 182nd-ranked Russian, who mostly plies his trade on the challenger circuit, 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.
Serving 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 in the first match of the day on Suzanne Lenglen court.
"First week you play against guys, some of them play first, second, third time of a Grand Slam," Zverev told reporters. "They're very motivated. They're excited to play on the big courts, like I thought today.
"I'm happy to be through in three sets. The match definitely wasn't easy."
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas also advanced with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win over Spaniard Pedro Martinez.
The Greek star, who lost an epic semi-final at Roland Garros to Novak Djokovic last year, next faces John Isner for a spot in the second week.
Earlier, Djokovic kicked off his campaign with a routine 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win against American Tennys Sandgren .
In the women's draw, Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro fell just short of a dream return to competitive tennis as she lost 3-6, 7-6(7/4), 6-4 to Sloane Stephens, little more than a month since declaring she had won her battle with cancer.
The 32-year-old was treated for early-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma last year. - REUTERS
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