Alexander Zverev won his second-round match at the 2023 China Open in Beijing, beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The German is one of the players who complained about late-night finishes this year, and he won't be happy about what happened at the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing. After a very long day, which started with a long match between Nicolas Jarry and Matteo Arnaldi, and was followed by Daniil Medvedev's win over Alex de Minaur, the German eventually got to play his match that started at midnight.
Zverev has been playing great tennis recently, and he wanted to follow up on that in Beijing. He started well in the first round against Diego Schwartzman, and to follow up on that in the second round, he had to overcome more than just his opponent.
The first set of the match saw multiple breaks from both players, but every time, it was the Spaniard who broke first. But never, from three occasions, could Davidovich Fokina hold the lead, and the set had to be decided in the tie-break.
In the tie-break, the Spaniard eventually pulled through, winning it 7-4. But Davidovich Fokina didn't start well in the second set of the match, as Zverev built a quick two-break lead, and with his precise and fast serve, he had no problem winning the set 6-2.
After winning the second set, the German kept troubling his opponent on his serve, and with three more breaks of serve, Zverev had no more problems, winning the match 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-1 in two hours and 34 minutes.
The match finished at almost 3 AM local time, and Zverev surely won't be happy about that. Yet, he'll need to prepare for his quarterfinal match against Nicolas Jarry, who defeated Matteo Arnaldi in the first match of the day on the centre court..