It wasn't pretty and there won't be any songs written about it but Alexander Zverev made a winning start at the 2023 Bastad Open.
He made his way back on clay following a solid experience at Wimbledon in the hope of finding some of that level he had at the 2023 Roland Garros. He didn't do that but he still got it done against a very tricky opponent who certainly gave him trouble.
Alex Molcan is a very capable player on clay and while he didn't win the match he certainly left a very solid impression. The first set was a pretty close battle between the players even though both had chances to break the other.
Eventually, Zverev stabilized and took a break late in the set to win it 6-4. The second one saw Molcan respond quickly as the Slovakian took an early break and never quite let it go. He played a really strong set early to jump out to the lead and then survived some shaky play late to close it out.
Zverev missed out on a 40-0 advantage down 3-5 in the second set which could have been a late comeback. It was annoying to Zverev that he didn't fight back but he made it right by jumping out to an early lead in the final set, a lead that many assumed would be enough to close out the win.
It wasn't as he allowed Molcan to break back and make it 3-3 for an absolutely exciting finish to the match. Molcan nearly broke once more to make it 4-3 but Zverev held somehow. He then broke for the 5-3 lead and this time around it again didn't prove enough. Molcan once again broke back to make it 5-5.
Eventually Zverev would work his way to a match point at 6-5 and finally convert it to end the match 7-5.
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