ATP Masters in Madrid, quarter-finals, Friday, 06.05.2022
The Masters in Madrid is slowly but surely heading for the final! From the German point of view, the joy is naturally particularly great that Alexander Zverev has made it into the top eight.
However, the defending champion now has an immensely difficult task ahead of him in the quarter-finals, because his opponent sweeps everything off the court in Madrid.
The Olympic champion also doesn’t have any good memories, so I’m assuming in my Auger-Aliassime Zverev tip that he’ll face a lot of headwind!
Is this what it looks like when the knot bursts for Germany’s best tennis player? Alexander Zverev travelled to Madrid with great motivation, wanting to forget the many poor results this year.
Whether disqualification, first-round exit or embarrassing defeats against teenagers, these four months have seen it all. But his fans should know that he loves the sand in the Spanish capital.
He has already lifted the trophy twice here, including last year. The mission to defend his title began after a walk-through with the task of Marin Cilic, not an easy number.
Zverev started strongly, but then lost the thread in the first set. In the end, after almost two and a half hours, the scoreboard showed a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. How would the 24-year-old fare a little later against Lorenzo Musetti?
There is no real way to analyse this match, because at 3-1 in the first set, the match was over. The Italian gave up, whether that saved Zverev’s energy or whether he needed the rhythm more?
He is not really well-rehearsed for tonight’s match against Felix Auger-Aliassime. Although Zverev is 4-2 overall, I wouldn’t put the Canadian in the category of favourite opponent.
Two of the last three duels went to Auger-Aliassime, so the three smooth German victories before that fade into the background a little. The only match on clay took place three years ago and was won by Zverev 6-1, 6-4.
The 21-year-old is actually not in a good mood at all and has been looking for his form for months. After losing two finals, he didn’t perform at all for a long time, but that seems to be changing abruptly now.
After failing in round 2 in 2019 and even in round 1 in 2021 (but with Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud, the opponents were also tough), he could pull off a really big coup in 2022.
A few days ago, he got off to an excellent start in a 6-3, 6-0 win over Cristian Garin, conceding only one break and winning 81% of his first serves. But even more impressive was what he delivered afterwards.
He faced none other than Jannik Sinner, who had no chance at all. 6-1, 6-2, hardly anyone expected such a demonstration of power from him! 90% won points on serve one and not a single break chance for Sinner, what a performance.
Six games lost in two games despite strong opponents, in this form the Canadian should finally be a candidate for his first tournament victory? First he would have to take Alexander Zverev out of the competition to do so.
My Auger-Aliassime Zverev tip
It’s hard to tell how good Alexander Zverev really is in Madrid now. A tough battle against Marin Cilic and only four games played against Lorenzo Musetti, after disappointing tournaments before, one cannot speak of a rhythm.
In this form I can therefore only come to the following tip:
Auger-Aliassime will win at least one set against Zverev!
