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No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev was extrenely happy with the way his Acapulco round-of-16 match against Serb Laslo Djere went. Zverev, the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals champion, handed a 6-4 6-3 loss to Djere to mmake his third quarterfinal in Acapulco.
Zverev twice recovered from a break down in the first set, before breaking Djere in the ninth game for a 5-4 lead and serving out for the opener in the following game. Djere recovered from a break down in the second set to level the set at three games apiece but Zverev then claimed back-to-back breaks to seal a straight-set win.
“I've known him since we were juniors and every time we played was extremely long, but that was back in the day,” Zverev said in his on-court interview, per the ATP website. “I'm happy with today's win and he's improved a lot since then”.
“I think today what showed the most is that I got better with the match. I started off extremely sloppy, started off with a lot of unforced errors. “The longer the match went on the better I started playing and this is something that is very important for me.
When I get into a rhythm I feel very comfortable on court and that's how I felt today”.
Zverev plays next against Casper Ruud
“Casper Ruud is someone who's come up the ranks extremely fast the last couple of months, couple of years,” Zverev said.
“Yeah he's somebody to look out for definitely”. In his press conference, Zverev acknowledged that the start was difficult against Djere and that he hopes to play better against Ruud. ''I felt comfortable and played very well although at the beginning it was difficult for me.
I hope to play better tomorrow,'' Zverev said. Also, Zverev added: ''I'm fine and I feel good. I have worked hard this year during the pandemic.' '