Stadthalle tournament

Stadthalle LIVE: Zverev against Giron – from 6 pm

(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

Alexander Zverev has confidently secured his place in the quarter-finals of the Tennis Erste Bank Open. The top-seeded German defeated the American Marcos Giron 6:2, 7:5 in the first round of 16 match of the tournament on Wednesday.

His next opponent on Friday will be Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who advanced without a fight due to Frenchman Gael Monfils' illness. The US American Tommy Paul, who had traveled to Stockholm as the winner of the tournament, was surprisingly knocked out in round one.

Here are the match statistics: 

Zverev had a little more trouble than on Monday in his opening match against Austria's hope for the future Joel Schwärzler. While the player from Vorarlberg only really kept up in the first three games at 2:6, 2:6, Giron managed that in the first set until Zverev's break at 4:2. In the second round, the 48th-ranked player served consistently well and almost made it into the tie-break. However, after Giron missed a chance to make it 6:6, the world number three took his first match point after 1:13 hours to make it 7:5. Zverev was only on court for five minutes longer than against the 18-year-old Schwärzler.

"Vienna is beautiful, I love playing here and hope to be here at least until Sunday evening or Monday morning," said Zverev in the winner's interview on Center Court. His clear goal at the hard-court event, which has prize money of 2.626 million dollars, is his second triumph overall since 2021. He is competing in the main event in Vienna for the fourth time, having lost to Russia's Andrey Rublev in three sets in the quarter-finals in 2023.

Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler are flying Austria's flag in the doubles competition. The ÖTV duo started the tournament with a hard-fought 7:6(2),4:6,10:8 victory against Machac/Zhang. In the match tiebreak, they were able to make up a 2:7 deficit and then convert their first match point. The Tyrolean and the Lower Austrian thus still have the chance to win their seventh joint title on the tour, having won number six in Antwerp on Sunday. Erler/Miedler triumphed in Vienna two years ago.

Erste Bank Open VIENNA (ATP-500, 2.626 million euros, hard)
1st round:
Grigor Dimitrov (BUL-3) - Zhang Zhizhen (CHN) 6:4,7:5
Brandon Nakashima (USA) - Tommy Paul (USA-4) 6:4,6:4
Tomas Machac (CZE) - Fabian Marozsan (HUN) 7:6(5),6:1
Karen Khachanov (RUS) - Thiago Seyboth Wild (BRA) 6:2,6:4

Round of 16:

Alexander Zverev (GER-1) - Marcos Giron (USA) 6:2,7:5

Matteo Berrettini (ITA) - Frances Tiafoe (USA-5) 6:3,6:7(6),6:3

Lorenzo Musetti (ITA-6) - Gael Monfils (FRA) w.o. (sick)