Alexander Zverev played a pretty flawless match against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the United Cup to beat him in two sets.
This was a pretty good match for both players because both showed a pretty decent level. Zverev is uniquely equipped to counter Tsitsipas with his super solid play from the baseline, and he certainly annoyed me with that today.
One thing that Tsitsipas has that can counter that is the serve, yet it never quite showed up the way it could have in this one. It was a problem because he couldn't save himself with the serve when he found himself in that one game where things weren't going well.
That's how the match basically went. Tsitsipas was pretty solid on his serve, finding some good solutions with the forehand, or some volley or even the occasional backhand down the line. However, when that one bad game came, he couldn't find a solution.
That's what happened in the first set when he completely lost the plot towards the end of it. Even when he found chances in the set's final game, Tsitsipas couldn't quite get there because Zverev was just too solid. When he needed something more, he found it, but for the most part, he was just super solid.
Very few mistakes and, more importantly, very few mistakes in crucial moments. We saw that in the second set when he easily overcame a 0-30 on his serve in a crucial moment. Then, at 4-4, Zverev stepped up and played like a genuine wall to force 3 unforced errors out of Tsitsipas.
All came from the backhand which shows you the clear tactical approach by Zverev. He would break his serve then and take a 5-4 lead which he closed out with a nice service game. The final score was 6-4 6-4. Just enough.
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