PARIS (Reuters) – Sixth seed Alexander Zverev rallied from two sets down to beat qualifier Oscar Otte 3-6 3-6 6-2 6-2 6-0 in his opening round of the French Open on Sunday.
The 24-year-old seemed headed for an early exit like Austrian Dominic Thiem, who beat him at the 2020 U.S. Open final, when he lost the first two sets on the Suzanne Lenglen Court but he found a different gear to completely turn the contest around.
It was one way traffic against the 152nd ranked Otte in the first meeting between the two Germans for the remainder of the contest as Zverev’s movement on the red clay improved and he found more power in his shots and more sting in his serves.
Zverev has now won all seven of his five-set contests at Roland Garros and will next meet another qualifier, either Russian Roman Safiullin or Carlos Taberner of Spain.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Berhampore, India; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
