Alexander Zverev admits that every match and every win is important for him at this stage of his comeback.
Zverev, a former world No 2, missed the entire second half of the 2022 season before returning to action at the start of the 2023 season.
This week, Zverev is competing at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.
On Tuesday, Zverev defeated Sonwoo Kwon 6-4 7-6 (4) in the Rotterdam first round.
“Every match for me is very important right now and obviously playing against very high-level players and having wins against them I think is very important for my confidence as well. We’ll see how this week goes, but I’m definitely excited for just every match that I’m going to play here,” Zverev said after the match, per the ATP website.
How Zverev defeated Kwon?
Zverev got off to a great start to the match against Kwon, breaking the South Korean in the very first game of the match.
After an early break, no break points were seen again until the 10th game – the game in which Zverev was serving for the first set.
In the 10th game, Kwon had a total of three break points but didn’t realize any of his break point opportunities.
After saving three break points, Zverev finally converted his fourth set point to win the first set.
In the second set, not a single break point was seen and the set had to be resolved in a tie-break.
In the second-set tie-break, Kwon had a 3-2 lead before Zverev won the next three points to take a 5-3 lead.
Kwon won the ninth point to cut Zverev’s lead to 5-4 but the German won the following two points to complete a two-set win.
It was the first-ever meeting between Zverev and Kwon.
Going into the match, Zverev was just 2-4 on the season.
For Zverev, it was certainly an important win that will help him improve his confidence levels.