Zverev overcomes Griekspoor from two breaks down in fifth set

It was an eventful first week of the French Open for Alexander Zverev, to put it mildly.

After getting past 14-time champion Rafael Nadal in the first round, Zverev staged an improbable fifth-set comeback to defeat Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(10-3) during third-round action on Saturday evening. The German recovered from 4-1, double-break down in the decider to prevail in four hours and 14 minutes.

Zverev played a solid return game at 1-4, which put some pressure on Griekspoor in the Dutchman’s following service game. Sure enough, Griekspoor cracked. A pair of double-faults led to another loss of serve and eventually to a super-tiebreaker. It was a ‘breaker Zverev dominated from start to finish.

“Honestly, obviously it was not my best match,” the world No. 4 assessed. “I managed somehow down 4-1 in the final set. He started maybe to think a little bit, but I started to play much better and obviously (I’m) happy with the win…. Of course down 4-1 there’s a lot more chance you’re going to lose the match than you’re going to win.”

But Zverev stayed strong mentally despite being on the brink of defeat.

“The first thing I did (was) I changed my return position from very far back,” he explained. “I stepped in closer to the line because he was killing me with the serve-and-volley for a set and a half, for fourth set and fifth set.

“My first mindset was, ‘okay, right, I’m down 4-1, but how do I give myself the best chance to come back?’ The number one thing I had to take away was his serve-and-volley game, which was working out very well today for him. So I did that. I thought I was returning incredibly well down 4-1. I played a very good game at 4-1 down…. He started to think. He started to think at 4-3, and he did do the two double-faults. He did maybe miss one or two backhands that he shouldn’t have missed.”

Zverev survives to face Holger Rune on Monday after the Dane defeated lucky loser Jozef Kovalik in straight sets. Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur, Casper Ruud, Taylor Fritz, and Francisco Cerundolo also advanced in the top half of the draw.