French Open 2023: Alexander Zverev through to Round 4 after beating Frances Tiafoe

Alexander Zverev, on Saturday, June 3, defeated Frances Tiafoe and advanced to the fourth round of the French Open 2023 men’s singles.

The German won the match 3-6, 7-6, 6-1, 7-6 at Court Philippe Chatrier in three hours and 41 minutes. Zverev is now set to face Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, who will go into the match after beating Daniel Altmaier 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 on Saturday at Court Simonne-Mathieu.

The opening set was a one-sided affair in favour of Tiafoe, who earned two breaks of serve. The American was dominant to the extent that he did not even give Zverev a chance to break his serve. The set ended with a double fault from Zverev and that summed up the struggles of the German.

Zverev, however, earned an early break in the second set, but Tiafoe earned the break back. Thereafter. Tiafoe saved a couple of break points to stay alive. The set eventually went into the tie-break where Zverev somehow managed to hold on.

Tiafoe was not going to throw in the towel easily as he earned an early break in the third set. But Zverev was equal to the task by returning the favour to his opponent in the very next game. Zverev earned two more breaks after which he came down from 0-1 to make it 5-1 in the third set. The German closed out the third set by holding his serve.

From dominating in the first set to completely losing his focus in the next two, the onus was on Tiafoe to stay alive in the contest. The 25-year-old played much better than the previous two sets and earned his first break in the fourth to make it 5-3.

But Zverev earned a break back to stay alive in the set. The 26-year-old held his serve and with the scorecard reading 5-5, the fourth set went right down to the wire. Zverev held his serve as the set went into a tie-break. Zverev held her nerve to close out the match against a spirited Tiafoe.