The number two seed takes his second victory in the John Newcombe Group
Alexander Zverev maintained his late-season form with impressive tennis on Wednesday night at the Nitto ATP Finals.
The German defeated Casper Ruud 7-6(3), 6-3 in Turin, achieving his second victory of the week in the prestigious end-of-season tournament. Although Ruud arrived full of confidence after beating Carlos Alcaraz in his opening match, Zverev put the Norwegian down with a solid 86-minute performance at the Inalpi Arena.
“A good match. I think we both played good tennis,” Zverev said. “I’m happy for the victory. Maybe my performance was even better than my first outing, even though that was pretty good too. Now I’m looking forward to playing Carlos on Friday and hopefully playing more games over the weekend.”
Zverev and Ruud played almost equally in an intriguing first set, characterized by the absence of break points but by many high-quality exchanges. However, it was the German, seeded number two, who took the lead when it mattered most, immediately taking an insurmountable lead (6-1) in the tie-break.
The second set developed in a similar way, with Ruud fighting hard to counter his opponent’s powerful serve and heavy groundstrokes. Just when the match seemed destined for a second tie-break, Zverev took advantage of a rare turn of serve from his opponent to get a decisive break, going up 5-3.
From there, Zverev had no trouble locking out his second win of the week, following Monday’s win against Andrey Rublev. The German in great form, who clinched his second ATP Masters 1000 title of the season in Paris/Bercy 10 days ago, he still hasn’t conceded a break point this week in Turin.
With his 68th win of the season, to top the circuit in 2024, Zverev moved to 2-0 (wins/losses) in the John Newcombe Group. The Rome and Paris/Bercy champion will face Alcaraz in their final group match on Friday, aiming to secure a place in the semi-finals. Zverev is chasing his third Nitto ATP Finals title, having already lifted the trophy in London in 2018 and Turin in 2021.
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