Top seed Alexander Zverev on Wednesday shrugged off a knee issue to ease past Jesper de Jong in straight sets and into the last 16 at his home tournament in Hamburg.
The defending champion hurt his left knee in a fall at Wimbledon, but advanced 6-2, 6-2 past 114th-ranked Dutchman De Jong to set up a meeting with France’s Hugo Gaston in the pre-Olympic clay-court tournament.
“I was still unsure this morning if I was going to play or not and during the warm-up I was in quite a lot of pain, but somehow when I step on this court it disappears a little bit when the adrenaline gets going,” the German world No. 4 said.
Photo: AFP
“I have an injury where I know where I stand and it will take time to heal. It won’t heal in the next few days, it will take weeks and it’s up to me if I am going to play like that or not,” he added.
Zverev, who reached the fourth round on grass at Wimbledon, claimed his 41st match win of the season.
Third seed Sebastian Baez and fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo, both from Argentina, also reached the quarter-finals, along with Italy’s Luciano Darderi and Spaniard Pedro Martinez.
PALERMO LADIES OPEN
Staff writer with AP, PALERMO, Italy
Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Zhang Shuai of China on Wednesday won their opening match at the Palermo Ladies Open in Italy.
The Taiwanese-Chinese pair defeated Russian duo Sofya Lansere and Anastasia Tikhonova 6-0, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals. They were to play Kimberley Zimmermann and Camilla Rosatello after press time last night at the Country Time Club.
The Italian-Belgian pair eliminated Maria Carle and Julia Riera of Argentina 6-4, 6-4 to set up the clash.
SWEDISH OPEN
AFP, BASTAD, Sweden
Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud on Wednesday saved a match point in the deciding set tie break to reach the semi-finals of the doubles in Bastad, hours after the Norwegian was knocked out of the singles.
Nadal and Ruud squeezed past France’s Theo Arribage and Roman Safiullin of Russia 6-4, 3-6 (12/10) to advance to the last four, winning the final three points of the match after being on the brink of defeat.
“I think we had some fun. It was an emotional match at the end, a good level of tennis against two good players,” said Nadal, who is also competing in the singles tournament. “We enjoy it, the crowd was amazing. Full crowd in a doubles match, that’s fantastic. Just enjoying every single day here.”
Nadal returned to competition for the first time this week since his early French Open exit.
In the singles, Ruud’s Olympic preparations took a hit when he lost 6-3, 6-3 to Thiago Monteiro in the second round earlier on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, world No. 121 Thiago Tirante of Argentina pulled off the biggest win of his career when he defeated top seed and defending champion Andrey Rublev 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-4.
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