Alexander Zverev in Melbourne slightly into the second round

Alexander Zverev achieved the round of 16 with a sovereign victory against his favorite opponent at the Australian Open.

The German number one won 6: 3, 6: 3, 6: 1 in Melbourne against the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino and thus survived the third round of the first Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season for the third time in a row. "I am happy about the victory and I am happy to get through in three sets," said Zverev. For him it was the sixth victory in the sixth duel with Mannarino. Last year alone, the 23-year-old had won three times against the left-hander.

"The duels last year were all tight. I was a bit tired at the beginning, so I tried to play very powerfully from the start," said a happy Zverev after his impressive performance. "I wanted you not to have to sit in the heat for so long," he said to the audience.

Zverev, the last German tennis professional in Melbourne, meets Dusan Lajovic, number 23. The Serb won against Pedro Martinez from Spain with 6: 7 (6: 8), 7: 5, 6: 1, 6: 4. Then there will be no spectators on Friday. Due to the Corona outbreak in an airport hotel, the Australian metropolis is again closed for five days.

Up to and including Wednesday, no fans are allowed in the Melbourne Park facility. "Of course it's a shame for every player. Tennis without a spectator is different. We play for the audience, we play in front of 20,000 people for the moments in the large places," said Zverev. "But health comes first. You have to take care of your country that is Australia for Australia so that you can understand it. A tennis tournament is currently not the most important thing in the world for people. The most important thing is health and now also pay attention to it."

Zverev began to concentrate in the Rod Laver Arena, but had to survive a difficult moment early. When the result was 2-2, Mannarino had two breakballs, but the German number one defended them confidently. Instead, he took the serve from the French shortly afterwards and took the first set a little later with the first set ball.

In the second set, Zverev always had the game under control. This time nothing was recognizable of the abdominal muscle problems that had hindered him since the start of the tournament, especially when the surcharge. In the first two sentences, the Hamburg -born ten aces met in his muscle shirt and gave Mannarino no chance with his powerful game. "Nevertheless, I still took care of my body. But hopefully it will be better every day," said Zverev.

At the beginning of the third section, Zverev suffered a small phase of weakness and had to ward off a breakball in the first service game. But Zverev survived this small print phase, took a break shortly afterwards and then had an easy game. After 1:43 hours he used his first match ball with an ass.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210212-99-408344/4

dpa