Alexander Zverev has become the first man this season to claim a 60th win on the Tour after battling through a topsy-turvy encounter against Quentin Halys at the Shanghai Masters.
The top seed spent more than two hours on court before securing a 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-3 win over the Frenchman. Zverev didn’t face a single break point during the match and twice had a match point in the second-set tiebreak but failed to convert both of those opportunities. Despite the blip, he got back to winning ways by racing out to a 3-0 lead in the decider, which gave him enough of a margin to close the match out.
Zverev has now reached the last 16 in seven out of his last eight Masters 1000 events played. In Shanghai, he could seal the year-end No.1 for the first time in his career if he reaches the semi-finals.
“On a hard court, for me he’s one of the best servers in the world because he can hide his serve so well with his ball toss,” Zverev said of world No.48 Halys.
“He can do so many things with the serve. So, his serve and plus one (shot) is probably top 5 in the world.
“So credit to him, he’s playing amazing tennis, and made it difficult for me.”
Halys was almost as impressive on serve, winning 69% of his service points compared to Zverev’s tally of 74%. He was broken just twice, in the very first game and early in the third set.
“Both of us were serving unbelievably well,” Zverev commented. “It’s quite a lot of big hitting as well.”
Zverev has now won 60 or more matches during three separate seasons so far in his career. His personal best is 69 in 2024. He also claimed 60 wins in 2018.
Bublik explodes, then wins
Alexander Bublik, who will play Zverev in the next round, suffered a meltdown after dropping the first set against Brandon Nakashima before battling to a 6-7(7), 6-3, 7-6(5) win.
The Kazakh was furious with himself after failing to convert back-to-back set points in the opening tiebreak before losing five out of the next six points played. As soon as the first set ended, Bublik repeatedly smashed his racket on the floor before kicking the bottom of his seat. He then smashed his fist on the top of the fridge next to him, breaking the top plastic layer that cut his hand.
Despite the outburst, Bublik regained his cool and sealed the win without facing a break point, winning 83% of his first-serve points.
Bublik leads the world No. 2 3-1 in their head-to-head, but their last meeting was in 2023.
“I’m expecting a difficult match,” Zverev previewed. “I’m expecting a tough battle, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
