By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
It seems like Alexander Zverez just couldn’t get over the hump.
In what to be an expected bounce-back Grand Slam campaign from the German tennis star, Zverez once again failed to reach the playoffs of the ongoing Wimbledon and exited the tournament in the third round after falling to Matteo Berrettini of Italy- 6.3, 7.6, 7.6- last July 9, 2023.
The former world no. 2 male tennis player saw himself in an unfortunate position after failing to steal away the Italian’s momentum for three-straight sets.
It was all Berrettini in the first set as his flat forehand ball posed tons of problems for Zverez to generate his offense from the baseline.
The power that the Italian put into his groundstrokes was a huge factor in his dominant first-set win, pulling back Zverez with his precise backhand strikes while also keeping him out of the net area with his well-placed long balls.
Zverev gained some groove midway through the second set as he finally got his much-needed forehand rhythm.
His resurgence put some momentum on his side but after committing two unforced errors in the crucial rally in the second set, Berrettini capitalized on his mistakes and clinched the last three points to go up 2-0.
It was the same result in the third and final set as Zverez was off to a rousing start, punishing the Italian with his forehand bombs while scoring jaw-dropping down-the-line strikes.
As Berrettini was about to unload his backhand just like the first set, Zverez was able to provide some counters and returned with a slow-paced slice shot that disrupted the Italian’s hitting rhythm due to the heavy spin.
However, Zverez once again entered the error-prone zone in the winning minutes of the match and could only watch Berrettini operate in the last three rally exchanges.
With the win, Berrettini will be tasked to take down the rolling Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s Round of 16 today.
