Alexander prevails in all-Zverev U.S. Open tuneup
Seems safe to say Alexander Zverev has never hugged an opponent quite the way he did after beating older brother Mischa 6-3, 7-5 to reach the Citi Open quarter-finals Thursday in their first ATP main-draw match against each other.
Alexander, 21, is seeded No. 1 and the defending champion at the hard-court tune-up for the U.S. Open. Mischa, who turns 31 in a few weeks, was seeded No. 15. They had met twice before in qualifying matches, most recently in 2014, but never beyond that.
“It was just fun,” Mischa said. “That’s all I can say.”
The dynamics were a bit different from a usual match. They know each other’s on-court strengths and weaknesses. There wasn’t much emotion from either man. And not much cheering from spectators, who maybe had a hard time picking which Zverev to pull for. Instead of using simply a last name to refer to a player, the normal practice, the chair umpire used first names, too.
This was not quite Zverev versus Zverev in a Wimbledon final, as they had dreamed about and pretended to play a decade ago in their backyard. Still, it was a unique moment with their father Alexander Sr. — the man who taught both how to play tennis and coaches them to this day — sitting in the front row.
It was the most intriguing matchup on another rainy day, when play began about 3½ hours late.
A weary John Isner hit serves in the low-90-m.p.h. range and was broken twice in the opening set during a 6-4, 7-6 (6) loss to 152ndranked Noah Rubin in the second round. The No. 2-seeded Isner was coming off a title in Atlanta last week and a semifinal run at Wimbledon last month. Isner credited Rubin with having more energy.
In the women’s draw, Nao Hibino withdrew before her match against No. 6 seed Belinda Bencic because of an injured abdominal muscle.
Two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova won as did No. 7 seed Donna Vekic, who edged Fanny Stollar 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (13).