Zverev survives Griekspoor scare, reaches fourth round in Shanghai

Alexander Zverev survived a scare on Tuesday against Tallon Griekspoor in the third round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters, requiring eight match points to book his ticket to the last 16.

With the triumph, Zverev is into the fourth round of a ninth consecutive ATP Masters 1000, still alive in his quest for a second title in 2024. The World No. 3 regrouped from an out-of-sorts second set to prevail 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-6(5) and extend his lead in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series to 5-1.

“It was a tough match, going back and forth. I thought he was a bit lucky during the third set and I got very lucky in the tie-break, so we equalled each other out,” said Zverev, who is making his sixth appearance in Shanghai.

“It was an incredible match, he is someone that I always struggle against. We always have extremely tough matches and, for me, he should be a lot higher ranked than he is. He needs to look at why he is not playing like that every single week. He could be Top 15, Top 10 in the world.”

Moving ?@AlexZverev digs deep to get past Griekspoor 7-6(6) 2-6 7-5.@SH_RolexMasters | #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/GmESoEsB7a

Zverev, who improved to 59-18 on the season, trails only Jannik Sinner in match wins. The German will next face David Goffin.

The Belgian is into the fourth round of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time since the 2022 Madrid Open after rallying from a set deficit to overcome American Marcos Giron 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a gripping encounter.

Zverev, who reached the Shanghai final in 2019, is bidding to win a fifth different ATP Masters 1000 title after triumphs in Rome (2017, 2024), Madrid (2018, 2021), Cincinnati (2021), and Canada (2017). He is also a two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion and has booked his spot for a seventh appearance this year in Turin.

Zverev's resilience came to the fore in the dying embers of the opening set when he converted his second set point to swing the match in his favour. The 27-year-old, however, failed to capitalise on the momentum in an error-strewn set.

Girekspoor, No. 40 in the PIF ATP Rankings, only hit two unforced errors in set two en route to levelling the match at one set apiece.

The Dutchman fended off eight break points - four of which were match points in the 12th game - in the deciding set to force a tie-break. It appeared as if the match was turning, but Zverev stormed to a 6/2 lead, producing four further opportunities to close out the clash.

After some gutsy tennis from Griekspoor to reduce the deficit to just one point, the Dutchman's hard work was eventually undone by a routine forehand volley that sailed into the net, handing Zverev, who remains alive in his quest to reach the fourth round of all ATP Masters 1000s in 2024, victory on his eighth attempt.