DESPITE having an almighty scare, world number two and top seed in Rio de Janeiro, Alexander Zverev fended off Alexander Shevchenko to reach the quarter finals of the ATP500 event. In a mat h that took two hours and 28 minutes to complete, Zverev won 7-1 and 8-6 in each of the tiebreakers for a final score of 7-6 7-6 on the Brazilian clay.
It marked the German’s sixth consecutive clay court quarter finals appearance on his Rio debut, opting to head to South America rather than remain Europe or go to the United States in order to get a headstart on the clay court season.
Despite the match being trickier than many might have thought given Shevchenko’s world ranking of 103, Zverev said the conditions were always a challenge and he had to fight through them to get the win.
“Generally, I thought it was a pretty good match. It’s not easy conditions here. It’s hot, humid. You go to your limits sometimes physically,” Zverev said post-match. “I thought he played a very good match, so I’m happy with the win and definitely happy with the improvement from yesterday.”
The second set tiebreaker got a little too close for comfort for the German, who trailed by as much as 2-5, and then saved two set points at 4-6 to win the last four points of the match and stamp his ticket into the final eight.
Zverev said the humidity and temperature made the gruelling contest even harder to win, with Shevchenko able to fight back from 1-4 down in the second set to force that tiebreaker that the Kazakh very nearly won.
“I was physically struggling I think at 4-1. I was really struggling to breathe,” Zverev said. “The air is very heavy here. Very, very humid. I caught myself then afterwards and obviously happy I didn’t have to play a third set.”
The world number two faces Argentina’s Francisco Comesana who could sympathise with Zverev regarding tiebreakers, having gone through three of them – including saving a match point in the third set – to defeat Chilean Nicolas Jarry 7-6 6-7 7-6.
In the other results, fifth seed Argentinian Sebastian Baez continued on his merry way, knocking out compatriot Mariano Navone in a contest that went the distance 6-4 1-6 6-3, and will now take on Taiwan qualifier Chun-Hsin Tseng who continues to surprise. His latest win came against the last local hope in wildcard Thiago Monteiro, winning in a third set tiebreaker.
2025 RIO OPEN ATP500 – ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:
[1] Alexander Zverev (GER) defeated Alexander Shevchenko (KAZ) 7-6 7-6
[5] Sebastian Baez (ARG) defeated Mariano Navone (ARG) 6-4 1-6 6-3
Francisco Comesana (ARG) defeated Nicolas Jarry (CHI) 7-6 6-7 7-6
[Q] Chun Hsin Tseng (TAI) defeated [WC] Thiago Monteiro (BRA) 6-7 6-3 7-6
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