Roland Garros runner-up Alexander Zverev returned to the courts in Paris for his first match at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and he did well, beating Jaume Munar in two sets.
Zverev was the second-best this year at Roland Garros, making the final and leading Carlos Alcaraz after three sets of play. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to hold on to that lead and lost the match in five sets, remaining with zero Grand Slams won in his tennis career.
What that run did confirm is that he is one of the best performers on these courts we've seen in recent history. Before the final this year, Zverev had multiple semi-finals at the event, so he entered the Olympic Games in Paris as one of the favorites.
It was certainly the right conclusion to make, and he backed it up in his first-round match by playing some amazing tennis against Munar. The German player was the overwhelming favorite, even though he was facing a really tricky player who is known on the ATP Tour as a clay specialist.
It's not easy to beat Munar on clay, but Zverev was able to do so about as well as he could have hoped. He took an early break, which was ideal for his match, and then he took another break to make it 4-1 in the opening set.
In the next game, he faced some minor trouble but was still able to wiggle out of it for a decisive 5-1 lead. Munar likes to play long rallies and grind down his opponents, but that's a bad tactic against Zverev, who doesn't mind doing the same.
Still, he has been playing aggressive tennis, and he did the same in this match. The serve is a huge weapon in that because it puts his opponents under tremendous pressure immediately.
He then can dominate the rallies. Despite not hitting the cleanest, Zverev was still hitting better than Munar, and that proved enough. He won the opening set 6-2 behind five aces and just very aggressive play and return.
He waited for Munar's weaker second serve to really attack him, and it proved a wonderful idea because it worked. He won most of those points and broke twice to win that opening set.
A similar tactic proved very fruitful in the second set as well because Zverev took an early break in that set, too. He then added another break for a 3-0 lead, as Munar could not simply win rallies against the German player consistently.
With Zverev, the clear tactic would be to hit through him, which Munar can't, or outsmart him in rallies, which the Spaniard wasn't able to do either.
It was just a bad matchup for him, which is why Zverev was able to cruise through this match largely unchallenged. It was the decisive proof that he would be a problem for everybody in the draw and a serious threat to win a medal again.
The final score ended up being 6-2, 6-2 for the German, who is the defending champion at the Olympic Games, having won gold at the last Olympics in Tokyo.
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