French Open in Paris, 1st round, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, 12:30 p.m.
He’s not in good shape – but a Grand Slam tournament won’t wait until he’s back on form. These are not easy times for Alexander Zverev, who finally wants to realize his dream of winning his first Grand Slam title at the French Open.
An exit in the first round is not an option and would be an absolute embarrassment. His opponent in the opening round looks fairly easy on paper – but the world number 3 cannot afford to underestimate anyone right now.
In my Zverev tip, I take a close look at his rival and reveal why I believe the favorite can win easily despite his slump in form.
How can you sum up Alexander Zverev’s year so far in a nutshell? The 28-year-old came very close to his dream of a Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open, but lost the final clearly to Jannik Sinner.
Afterwards, it seemed, or rather still seems, that he is still struggling to come to terms with the defeat. He won the BMW Open in Munich, but he didn’t have the toughest opponents to play against.
In Madrid, he lost in the round of 16, and in Rome, he was eliminated one round later. With the exception of the aforementioned BMW Open, Zverev never made it to the semifinals and lost his second place in the world rankings to Carlos Alcaraz.
Boris Becker has sharply criticized Germany’s best tennis player after his performances in Hamburg, where Zverev was defeated in the round of 16 by Alexandre Müller. The 2021 Olympic champion claimed that he went into the match in poor health.
“That begs the question: Why did you play at all?” At the same time, however, Becker sees an advantage in the early exit, as it will allow Zverev to recover in time for the start of Roland Garros.
A year ago, he stormed to the final in Paris, losing in five sets in a real thriller against Carlos Alcaraz. He had previously reached the semi-finals three times in a row, with Zverev last failing in the first round in 2017.
Incidentally, Zverev has already played Learner Tien, his opponent in the first round, once this year. The memories are anything but positive! The German lost in straight sets, 3-6, 4-6.
The 19-year-old American is ranked 67th in the world, so there are definitely easier opponents to face at the start of a Grand Slam. At 1.80 m, he is a full 18 centimeters shorter than Zverev, and the favorite must take advantage of this.
Favorite – that’s Zverev, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The odds at our bookmakers are an average of 1.02 to 15.0. That’s a clear lead.
Learner Tien probably won’t be bothered by the fact that no one believes he can win – it was no different a few months ago. The up-and-coming American won his first ever Grand Slam match at this year’s Australian Open.
As a qualifier, he made it straight to the round of 16, causing a stir with a victory over Daniil Medvedev, among others. He was eventually defeated by Lorenzo Sonego in five sets.
Roland Garros? Completely new territory for him, he has never played here before. His current form could definitely be better. In Geneva, he lost to Kei Nishikori in the first round, and in Madrid he was knocked out in the second round by Tomas Machac.
Since the tournament in Acapulco, where he defeated Alexander Zverev, Tien has only managed to win one match. He made numerous errors in his first-round exit in Geneva.
He was only able to convert two of 13 break points and gave away nine of his own. The 19-year-old is not the strongest server. It is also interesting to note that he has only had to go to a tiebreak three times since Acapulco.
My Zverev Tien tip
Under normal circumstances, Alexander Zverev should prevail against Learner Tien, but what are normal circumstances at the moment? The 28-year-old is not in top form, and the results speak for themselves.
However, Learner Tien is also far from his best and has hardly won any matches recently. Since Zverev has been doing well in Paris for years, I’m going to take the (relatively small) risk and say:
Zverev will beat Tien in straight sets!
