By Tennis Now | Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Alexander Zverev beat Robin Haase, 6-4, 7-5, to score his ATP-best 50th win of the season and reach the Basel second round.
Photo credit: Rolex Shanghai Masters
Alexander Zverev held off a nemesis to hit a milestone.
A spunky Zverev broke serve in the final game of both sets repelling Robin Haase, 6-4, 7-5, to score his ATP-leading 50th victory of the season in Basel.
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The 31-year-old Haase brought the dazzle to Basel hitting a couple of tweeners, including a hopping tweener lob, but Zverev was better on the bigger points.
Zverev saved eight of 10 break points, including twice rallying from triple-break point deficits, to snap a two-match losing streak to Haase.
The 21-year-old German raised his record to 50-16 on the season.
The ATP's first 50-match winner will face 19-year-old Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin for a quarterfinal spot.
The second-seeded Zverev scored the first break charging out to a 3-1 lead and crunched an inside-out forehand extending to 4-1.
The Dutchman improvised a slick tweener working through a tough hold in the sixth game.
Altering the height of his shots, Haase banged out the break in the seventh game.
All that good work to level dissipated when the Dutchman double-faulted to face set point in the 10th game.
Drawing Haase forward with a couple of short slice backhands, Zverev zapped a forehand down the line rattling a high backhand volley error to take the opening set.
Haase earned triple break point in the third game of set two, but Zverev erased all three then carved out a delicate drop shot denying a fourth break point eventually holding for 2-1.
That near miss haunted Haase in the fourth game. He coughed up another double fault at 30-all to face break point then splattered a swing volley into net as Zverev broke for 3-1.
The Madrid champion eventually extended the lead to 5-2.
Undeterred, Haase pulled out the forehand drop shot followed by a mischievous hopping tweener lob that helped him hold.
A running forehand pass down the line earned the break putting the lanky Haase back on serve at 4-5.
Quick off the mark, Zverev dug out a drop shot poking a pass up the line then dotted the baseline with a churning return for double match point. Haase tried a serve and volley, but pushed a volley long as Zverev recovered to defeat the Dutchman for the third time in five meetings.
Stockholm champion Stefanos Tsitsipas scored his fifth straight win with a 6-2, 7-6 (3) triumph over Jeremy Chardy.
Tsitsipas won 22 of 26 points played on his first serve, three days after he defeated Ernests Gulbis in the Stockholm final to become the first Greek player to win an ATP title.
The fourth-seeded Tsitsipas will play Peter Gojowczyk for a place in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Gulbis beat Jack Sock for the second time in as many weeks scoring a 7-5, 6-4, win over the Paris Masters champion a week after the 30-year-old Latvian rallied past Sock, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the Stockholm quarterfinals.
Gulbis broke serve five times in a one hour, 41-minute victory that sends him into second-round match with Gilles Simon.