Sports writing (EFE).- The German Alexander Zverev, ten months after his serious right ankle injury against Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, was reunited with clay and beat the Kazakh Alexander Bublik on Tuesday, 3-6 , 6-2 and 6-4, in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000.
It was Friday, June 2, 2022, in an entire Roland Garros semifinal, and against the ‘king’ of clay, Nadal, in the ‘tie break’ of the second set, when Zvevev’s right ankle was materially destroyed in the attempt to slip to return a ball sent by the Spanish.
He fell on the track with clear gestures of pain, crying, he had to retire to the locker room and limped back to say he was giving up and hug Nadal. The German had torn ankle ligaments. Months of hard recovery awaited him and, little by little, he would acquire the confidence and the form to return to the slopes and recover his position in the elite of the world circuit.
In this time, he has already played this year in Indianapolis and Miami in March. In the first, he fell in third turn; in the second, in the first round. Both tournaments on hard surface.
This Tuesday, on the other hand, in Monte Carlo, where he reached the semifinals in 2018 and 2022, Zverev (n.16 ATP, thirteenth in the tournament) tasted the earth again in an official match. He did it against Bublik, a difficult rival, installed in position 53, and with whom he lost in the previous two, and without taking a set: Rotterdam 2021 and Montpellier 2022.
Zverev’s ‘revenge’ arrived in Monte Carlo, with suffering, as he had to overcome the loss of the first set (6-3). The German was trailing the Kazakh, much more accurate with his kick.
Everything began to change from the second, Don Zverev putting himself with a favorable 3-0, after breaking his rival’s serve in the second game. In the fifth Bublik returned the break, but immediately after he received the answer from an inspired German, more accurate with his service, and who scored three consecutive games that gave him the magician (6-2) and go to the third set .
The final sleeve was very even, with a break per part in the first six games, and both gave up few points with their respective serve. The decision, and in favor of Zverev, would come in the tenth game, on the Kazakh serve, and on the third ball he had to win the contest.
Zverev returned to earth with victory, with a smile. He now awaits him in the round of 16 with another tough rival, the Spanish Roberto Bautista, with whom he has met five times (the last four with victories for the German).
In other matches of the day, victories of the Czech Jiri Lehecka over the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori (6-1, 7-5); and the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov against the American Ben Shelton (6-1, 3-6, 6-3).
The Monte Carlo Masters 1000 entry: Zverev finds himself back on earth with a win over Bublik was first published on EFE Noticias.