Top-seeded Alexander Zverev downed Australia’s Jordan Thompson 7-5, 6-4 on Monday in the third round of the Miami Open, a result that reinforced the German’s consistency in some of the ATP’s biggest events.
Zverev earned his 81st win in an ATP Masters 1000 event — those tournaments ranked just below the four majors — since the start of 2000. He now sits atop the victories list in that span, having surpassed the 80 of Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost on Sunday in Miami.
Though Zverev, 27, has yet to win a Grand Slam championship, he has six Masters 1000 titles, including four since 2000. His best career result in Miami was a runner-up finish in 2018.
After falling behind 4-1 in the first set, Zverev dominated the match. He won 76 percent of his service points overall and prevailed on half of the points on Thompson’s second serve.
“Jordan made it difficult for me for sure,” Zverev said. “He’s a quality player. When you’re in rhythm, he knows how to break (it) a little bit. So he did extremely well today. I’m happy with my level from 1-4 onwards, losing just one game out of (the next) nine.”
Next up for Zverev is a matchup with 17th-seeded Arthur Fils of France, who held off 16th-seeded Frances Tiafoe of the United States 7-6 (11), 5-7, 6-2.
Tiafoe failed to take advantage of six set points in the opening set, five of them in the tiebreaker. Then Fils, 20, came up short on two match points in the second set. Tiafoe got the first service break of the final set but couldn’t hold on, with Files ultimately prevailing in 2 hours, 55 minutes.
“It was very tough. When I got into the third set, I was cramping and I couldn’t find the rhythm anymore,” Fils said. “My serve was tough and I couldn’t jump, so I tried to relax and play as fast as I could and hit as strong as I could. Somehow it worked.
“It’s not going to work every day, that’s for sure. Maybe once or twice out of 10 it’s going to work, and today it worked. I’m very happy about it, but Frances is a hell of a champion. It’s the first time we have played, and I hope we are going to have many more great battles.”
In other third-round action, third-seeded Taylor Fritz of the United States topped 27th-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada 7-5, 6-3; 10th-seeded Alex De Minaur of Australia overtook Brazil’s Joao Fonseca 5-7, 7-5, 6-3; 20th-seeded Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic ousted Reilly Opelka of the United States 7-6 (1), 6-3; and 29th-seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy handled Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 6-4, 6-4.
Also advancing were Adam Walton, an Australian lucky loser from qualifying, and the Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik.
–Field Level Media
