Zverev and Dimitrov forced to work hard for their victories
Second seed Alexander Zverev was almost packing his bags as he was given a big scare before booking his place in the men’s third round in Paris.
Zverev was down by a set and a break early – and down a racket he’d obliterated by then, too – before collecting himself and coming back to beat 60thranked Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 2-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Asked afterwards in his post-match press conference about what he told himself while trailing in order to turn his match around, the 21-year-old German scoffed at the premise.
“I mean, you guys make it sound like we think about it, really. We don’t,” said Zverev.
“We just try to play and win each point, each game. We’re not going to overthink it: ‘Oh, I’m two sets to one down. What am I going to do? How am I going to play the next point?’ We try to play our best. We try to maybe change a few tactics and see how we can win the next point and the next game.”
Fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov was also taken the distance by American Jared Donaldson who, tiring in a marathon final set, twice served underarm, winning a game point with the first. A gruelling clash lasting four-and-a-quarter hours was eventually won by Bulgarian Dimitrov 10-8 in the fifth.
Meanwhile, Marco Trungelliti’s epic journey came to an end in the second round. The Argentinian became the unlikely darling of Roland Garros after driving for ten hours from Barcelona to Paris, with his brother, mother and gran, on Sunday in order to register in time as a lucky loser.
Trungelliti, the world No 190, then stunned former top-20 player Bernard Tomic to net himself £69,000 in prize money. However, the 28-year-old hit the skids in round two as he was beaten 6-1, 7-6, (7/1) 6-1 by Italian Marco Cecchinato.