Alexander Zverev was slowly but surely getting back to his best form but he suffered a shocking loss at the 2023 Miami Open.
At Indian Wells, the German lost to Daniil Medvedev in a nail-biting 4th round thriller. He wanted to forget the loss at the 2023 Miami Open, where Zverev was the 13th-seeded. In the second round, he played against Taro Daniel, who stunned Matteo Berrettini at Indian Wells.
The two never met before and the Japanese player surely wanted to record yet another win against a Top 20 player. And he showed that since the match started as he flew into it in a dominant fashion.
In the first set, Daniel broke his opponent in the first game, but his dominant performance didn't end there. He added two more breaks and after just 30 minutes, Daniel won the first set 6-0. Speaking about the first set after the match, he said:
“In the first set he was struggling and I just didn’t want to let him get his rhythm back. Sometimes it’s a matter of letting them keep playing badly. It’s a little bit of a dirty fight.”
In the second set, things got much closer, but Daniel was still the better player. He just didn't miss as he hit 17 winners and made only two unforced errors in the match, while Zverev made 19 unforced errors and struggled on his serve.
After Daniel got one break also in the second set, the German couldn't stop him from winning. Daniel won the match 6-0, 6-4 in an hour and 13 minutes. Up next, he will meet Emil Ruusuvuori and he didn't hide his joy after the match.
“Sometimes you don’t know why things turn around and you have success. You keep rolling and it just happens. My plan is to keep accumulating more and more of these wins more consistently."