French Open in Paris, 3rd round, Saturday, 03.06.2023
Once shaky, once very confident. It is still unclear which track Alexander Zverev will take on his further path at the French Open 2023, but the 3rd round should of course not be the end of the line.
On Saturday, the Olympic champion will meet a really strong man from the USA, but is still ahead at Bet3000 and consorts. Therefore, in my Zverev Tiafoe tip, I will now reveal why I have a close match in mind, especially in the first set!
“I was nervous before the match, anxious, but I used that to my advantage. I’m happy with how everything went and I enjoyed it as well. It’s a perfect return, hopefully it will keep going like this.”
Alexander Zverev was happy after his 2nd round performance, had produced a very commanding 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 on the clay against Alex Molcan. He became stronger with every rally and was able to clearly lift the impressions from round 1.
He had started with a 7-6, 7-6, 6-1 win over Lloyd Harris, who is barely in the top 400 in the world. The Hamburg-born player fended off all eight break chances from Molcan (Harris had just as many).
Zverev has not yet broken the 80 per cent of points won on the first service, but he collects an average of more than 70 on serve number two and is therefore very dangerous on his own serve.
Before his serious injury exactly one year ago, Zverev last failed to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon 2019, so is an exit on Saturday out of the question? Considering the opponent, you probably shouldn’t judge too hastily.
Frances Tiafoe is 15 places ahead of Zverev in the world rankings, so it’s all the more surprising that our betting providers are offering odds of 1.35 to 3.20 – per Olympic champion!
They probably took a look at the direct comparison, because the two have already played each other seven times. Zverev has a clear 6:1 lead, but this is also the first duel since 2021.
The German has collected five straight wins, only at the US Open 2019 did he need all five sets. It is also striking that the seven direct duels have never featured a tiebreak. And that it is now the first match on clay.
Frances Tiafoe attracted a lot of attention last year with his semi-final in New York. In Barcelona in mid-April, he started the season on clay at the major tournaments, but only managed two victories.
But: He showed beforehand that things can also go quite differently with his tournament victory in Houston. A strong result, but it should also be noted that the competition was not that strong and Tiafoe was seeded at position 1.
Tight results have been his speciality, is he putting that into practice in Paris? In the French capital, he started the tournament with a commanding 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Filip Krajinovic, collecting a strong 82% won points on first serve.
A few days later against Aslan Karatsev, he made a strong comeback after losing the first set 3-6, deservedly advancing to the 3rd round by winning 6-3, 7-5, 6-2. Again, he served with more than 80% on the first serve.
Tiafoe may be ten centimetres shorter than Alexander Zverev, but his own service games are really dangerous. It is already clear that the US American is playing the best French Open of his career, attacking in Round 3 for the first time.
My Zverev Tiafoe tip
Which face will Alexander Zverev let you see on Saturday, the one from the 1st round or rather the one from the 2nd round? The Olympic champion still showed nerves against Lloyd Harris, but he presented himself all the better against Alex Molcan afterwards.
His serve has improved, but there is still room for improvement. In my analysis of Frances Tiafoe, I noticed the stronger service statistics, which is not an unimportant indicator.
Zverev won six of the seven duels, but all of them before his serious injury. I expect a very competitive match, especially in the beginning. My tip in this respect is:
We see more than 9.5 games in the first set!
