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US Open: Impressive Zverev extends his unbeaten run to 12 matches

Karolina Pliskova serves up a storm as she sees off wild card Caty McNally

Alexander Zverev serves to Sam Querrey during their first-round match at the US Open. Photograph: John G Mabanglo/EPA

Tue Aug 31 2021 - 20:14

Germany’s Alexander Zverev got his bid for a maiden Major off to a smooth start by beating American Sam Querrey 6-4 7-5 6-2 in the first round of the US Open yesterday.

Querrey kept the match close through the first two sets but was stymied by unforced errors as 2020 runner-up Zverev kept his game comparatively clean and fired off 25 winners.

The world number four went in for the kill in the third set and with the fifth game secured a double-break lead with the momentum squarely in his favour, never facing a break point himself during the entire match.

In a showdown between two six foot six inch (1.98m) power servers, Zverev’s consistency proved critical and he won 90 per cent of his first-serve points compared to 70 per cent for Querrey, who fended off three match points in the seventh game but was nonetheless defeated in a brisk one hour and 40 minutes.

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Zverev, who was two points away from winning a year ago before Dominic Thiem rallied to victory, is among the younger cohort hoping to upset world number one Novak Djokovic’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam.

‘Chasing history’

“Novak is chasing history,” said Zverev. “But I think the guys are going to try and get in the way of that and I’m looking forward to maybe giving him a challenge as well.”

The win extended his unbeaten streak to 12, after he beat Djokovic in the Tokyo semi-finals to win Olympic gold and walked away with the Western & Southern Open title earlier this month.

Women’s world number four Karolina Pliskova fired off eight aces to defeat American wild card Caty McNally 6-3 6-4 as she bids for an elusive first Major.

Pliskova, the 2016 runner-up, built up a 5-1 lead in the first set before her 19-year-old opponent settled her nerves, and hit 10 winners in the set compared to two from McNally, before breaking the American’s serve twice early in the second.

McNally bounced back to level the score at 3-3, with the crowd in Louis Armstrong Stadium cheering her on, but could not match Pliskova’s power as the Czech closed out the match with a pair of aces.

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