Big-serving Alexander Zverev trounced home hopeful Shang Juncheng 6-0, 6-3 at the China Open on Saturday to set up a quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic in Beijing. The German top seed needed just 55 minutes to brush aside the Chinese wildcard, ranked 250th, firing nine aces along the way.
“Happy with the win,” the world’s second-ranked player said, adding that his 21-year-old opponent had been “dangerous” and had “nothing to lose”. “Looking forward to the next couple of weeks,” he said ahead of his tie with Djokovic, who has never lost a match in Beijing, on Sunday.
Big-serving Alexander Zverev trounced home hopeful Shang Juncheng 6-0, 6-3 at the China Open on Saturday to set up a quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic in Beijing.
Also in the men’s draw, third seed Daniil Medvedev eased into the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff. 54 was handed a lifeline when Russia’s Kalinskaya retired three games down in the third due to injury.
“I thought the first set in particular was really difficult,” Zheng told the crowd in an on-court interview after the two-hour-and-22-minute match. “It was tough, it wasn’t the cleanest,” said the 22-year-old American after the two-hour-and-18-minute match. Alex de Minaur, seeded fifth, and Andrey Rublev both needed three sets to advance and will face each other in the last eight. After levelling the match in the second set, the world No.
The Italian won in Beijing last year but is not competing this time around and said on Saturday that he would not play at next week’s Shanghai Masters either.
Earlier, Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen rebuked rowdy fans at her home tournament before opponent Anna Kalinskaya retired with an injury, handing the Chinese player a 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 3-0 victory.
