(Cincinnati) Alexander Zverev had his best performance since his serious ankle injury in 2022 by knocking out Russian Daniil Medvedev in the round of 16 at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 on Thursday.
The German had not beaten a top 10 player since the 2022 edition of Roland-Garros, where he was forced to retire in an epic semi-final against Rafael Nadal.
In addition to Medvedev, no.3, another of the main seeds was eliminated, Stefanos Tsitsipas (no.4), by the Pole Hubert Hurkacz (20th in the world), 6-3, 6-4. This is the second premature failure of the Greek after his defeat against Gaël Monfils in Toronto.
Zverev, 26, was in good form at the end of July in Hamburg, on clay, where he won his first title since that disastrous day in Paris, but he had only dominated in Germany players ranked above 50th in the world.
Before arriving in Cincinnati, where he had won in 2021 in the wake of his Olympic title in Tokyo, he had failed in his second match at the Omniin Banque Nationale in Toronto against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich last week.
The old no. 2 in the world, now 17th, remained on three defeats against Medvedev this season in Monte Carlo, Rome and Indian Wells.
Ten days before the start of the United States Open, where he played, and lost, his only Grand Slam final in 2020, Zverev took the initiative of the game against the world No.3, landing most of the winners (38 to 13) at the cost of more faults (25 to 16).
He will face in the quarter-finals the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino or the American Mckenzie McDonald.
Zverev returned to competition in early 2023 after more than six months off following his injury.
