World number three beats Delbonis 6-1, 7-5, after top seeds crash out
\n MONTE CARLO
\nWorld number three Alexander Zverev outclassed Federico Delbonis 6-1, 7-5 in Monte Carlo on Wednesday to reach the last 16 of the Masters tournament after top seeds Carlos Alcaraz and Felix-Auger Aliassime crashed out.
\nZverev, who took to court as the highest-ranked player remaining in the tournament, lost the first four points of the match but breezed through the first set in just over 20 minutes and dropped only three points on serve.
\nThe 24-year-old was tested by Delbonis in the second, fighting back from 2-4 down and winning the next 11 points to move within a game of victory before converting his third match point.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not bad for a change of surface after Miami, you have to take that into consideration a little bit. I\u2019m happy with the win,\u201d said Zverev, who lost to Norwegian Casper Ruud in the quarter-final of the hardcourt event.
\nThe German\u2019s best run in the Principality tournament was 2018 when he reached the semi-finals, while he exited last year in the third round.
\n\u201cI know that I have to play much better,\u201d Zverev added. \u201cThis is the only Masters on clay that I haven\u2019t won. I\u2019m very motivated to do that and hope I can show it on court this week.\u201d
\nEarlier, unseeded American Sebastian Korda mastered the windy conditions to topple world number 11 Alcaraz 7-6(2) 6-7(5) 6-3 in an entertaining battle that lasted just over three hours, with both players struggling for rhythm.
\n\u201cAfter losing to a Spaniard in Indian Wells and serving for it, it was nice to get a victory today,\u201d said the 21-year-old Korda, who pushed Rafa Nadal to a third-set tiebreak at the California tournament.
\n\u201cIt was a crazy match!\u201d Korda will take on compatriot and Indian Wells winner Taylor Fritz after he beat former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic 6-3 4-6 6-4 while Zverev will face Pablo Carreno Busta, who advanced after Alexander Bublik retired in the third set.
\nMiami Open champion Alcaraz followed top seed Novak Djokovic out of the tournament and was joined by Auger-Aliassime as the Canadian world number nine fell 6-2 7-6(2) to an inspired Lorenzo Mussett in front of a raucous crowd.
\nLast year\u2019s finalist Andrey Rublev prevailed 2-6 6-1 6-4 over Alex de Minaur, fourth seed Ruud saw off Holger Rune 7-6(5) 7-5 and Jannik Sinner got past Finnish qualifier Emil Ruusuvuori 7-5 6-3 in other second-round matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World number three beats Delbonis 6-1, 7-5, after top seeds crash out MONTE CARLO World number three Alexander Zverev outclassed Federico Delbonis 6-1, 7-5 in Monte Carlo on Wednesday to reach the last 16 of the Masters tournament after top seeds Carlos Alcaraz and Felix-Auger Aliassime crashed out. Zverev, who took to court as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2074,5937],"class_list":{"0":"post-255112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alexander-zverev","9":"tag-monte-carlo"},"yoast_head":"\n