Alexander Zverev is on a quest to win a Grand Slam and return to the top 10 at the 2023 US Open, and it started well.
Zverev has yet to win a Grand Slam trophy, but his lone final happened at the US Open. It happened a while back, and despite being very close to winning, the German lost to good friend Dominic Thiem. The Austrian's career has never been the same since then, and Zverev experienced his own injury struggles.
An injury at the 2022 Roland Garros derailed what would have been his best season to date, but he's back to winning ways again. The first match in New York went pretty smoothly, considering that he played a player that could have made his life pretty miserable.
Aleksandar Vukic has a good serve and likes to play aggressively, but hitting through Zverev is pretty complicated, as many experienced in Cincinnati. Many failed, and Vukic didn't exactly pass the test either. He had plenty of winners, just not enough for the German, who was too good today.
Zverev had 13 aces, kept the number of double faults fairly low at 4 and did what he needed to do when presented with chances. Despite not being that great on his second serve, Zverev did enough on his first by only losing 8 points.
He faced two break points and saved one. On return, Zverev waited for his chances and then pounced. It worked out pretty well as Vukic really didn't serve as well as he needed to make the match complicated. The final score was 6-4 6-4 6-4 for Zverev in a little over two hours which is a pretty good effort.
He will face either Constant Lestienne or fellow German Daniel Altmaier next. He'll be favoured against either of those players, especially after this very solid performance.
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