Alexander Zverev is thriving in China as he booked a 7th straight win since landing in the country; the latest victim was Nicolas Jarry.
There are many reasons why Alexander Zverev is having such a good time in China, and much of that has to do with the conditions and his style of play. Chengdu worked exceptionally for him because his serve was almost nuclear at that event.
Winning a trophy never hurts your confidence, and even a very late finish a few days ago at the 2023 China Open didn't shake the German. He came out on fire against Nicolas Jarry, smashing the Chilean easily in the opening set. We alluded to this happening in our preview simply because his style gives Jarry so many problems.
The Chilean playing a rather weak first set didn't help his efforts, but Zverev was really solid. 6-1 was the score in the opening set as the 2020 US Open finalist dominated in most rallies, both on serve and return. The serve particularly looked as amazing as it did in Chengdu, and it would prove a problem as the match went on.
Some regression came in the second set because it is evident that Zverev couldn't keep that level up for too long. It simply wasn't realistic, and it didn't happen. He was spraying quite a few errors early in the second, but his serve kept him afloat at that time.
Neither player was giving too much in the second set as the match progressed the way we kind of thought it would - both dominating on the serve with very few chances. As it generally happens in such sets, we ended up in a tiebreak.
The German opened it well, taking an early 3-1 lead, but then completely fell apart, losing it 5-7. It was a very annoying loss for Zverev, who sometimes looked a bit tired.
Zverev faced early break points in the final set but survived and then used a bad game from Jarry to break. That was all he needed to close out the match which really should have ended after two sets. The final score was 6-1 6-7(5) 6-3 and the German will now play against the second-seeded Daniil Medvedev for a spot in the final.
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