Alexander Zverev battled through his illness to notch up his first win in Shanghai since 2019 with a win over Italy’s Mattia Bellucci.
The German registered a comprehensive 6-4, 6-2 victory over plucky Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci at the Shanghai Masters to advance to the third round.
Third seeded Alexander Zverev followed Beijing finalists Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner with a straight sets win in round two, after having all received a bye in the first.
Zverev withdrew from the China Open with pneumonia last week, after having also battled through illness at the Laver Cup.
Having lost to Roman Safiullin – Ben Shelton’s most feared opponent – last year, Zverev will be thrilled to have registered his first win since 2019 in Shanghai.
Alexander Zverev admits ‘surprise’ at one Mattia Bellucci shot
An ailing, perhaps slightly curmudgeonly Zverev complained about the tennis balls in his pre-tournament press conference.
Despite the convincing scoreline, the German didn’t have everything his own way as he advanced to round three.
He confessed after the win to the ATP: “He is actually a very good player. He surprised me a lot for his size. His serve is incredible. He gets quite a lot of speed on that, and from [the] baseline he is very, very aggressive.
“All in all, he is a very talented player, and I think he is going to get up the rankings quite quickly now, and we’ll be seeing him on these kinds of courts more regularly.”
The 27-year-old, standing just shy of two meters, usually clocks up a bucketful of aces. However, the match ended with both players on seven each, with Bellucci, 20cm shorter than Zverev, able to carve out some freebies throughout.
Who does Alexander Zverev play next at the Shanghai Masters?
The 27-year-old has certainly not had much luck of late, with Zverev explaining he was recently hospitalised after his condition worsened.
Still, Zverev has set himself lofty goals for the rest of 2024 despite being recent hampered in his quest for world number two after Alcaraz’s Beijing win.
In his way for a spot in the last 16 stands either Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor or Aussie world number 28 Jordan Thompson.
Having lost to both players before, twice against Thompson and once to Griekspoor, Zverev’s path to the next stage is not guaranteed.
The German lost to Thompson in the Los Cabos semi-final in Mexico, Zverev has since got his own back with a 6-1, 6-1, win in Montreal.
With Zverev’s health a real question mark, it’s difficult to say what kind of level we should expect.
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