Alexander Zverev has taken time to warm up and had to dig deep against fellow German Daniel Altmaier in his first match of the Australian Open, as the world No.3 kick-starts his bid to add a maiden Grand Slam title to his Olympic gold.
Zverev, 24, defeated 87th-ranked Altmaier 7-6(3) 6-1 7-6(1) under the lights at the Rod Laver Arena to set up a second-round meeting against Australian John Millman.
"Not much went to plan today, to be honest, except that I won," Zverev says. "But that is how it is sometimes.
"It is the first round of a very long tournament and you are not always going to play your best tennis. It was a good match for me to get into the tournament and hopefully the next round will be better."
Zverev won the men's singles gold at Tokyo 2021, during a season that was by far the best of his career. He also picked up five other titles during the year, including two Masters 1000 trophies and the season-ending ATP Finals.
The 2020 US Open finalist occasionally showed his frustration with double faults, but was otherwise solid in his service games, facing only a single breakpoint in the entire match, which Altmaier converted to lead the third set briefly.
Zverev, who hit 14 aces and committed six double faults, soon got the break back and then had four match points on his opponent's serve at 6-5.
Altmaier saved them all to force a tiebreaker, but the tall German, whose best performance at Melbourne Park remains reaching the 2020 semi-finals, raised his level to get over the line and sealed the contest when his 23-year-old compatriot found the net with a return.
"I played him a few times," Zverev says of Millman, ranked 89th. "I played him once at the French Open, which was five-and-a-half hours, five sets, so yeah, he's a very difficult player to beat.
"Hopefully, it'll be another fun one and I'm looking forward to being back on court."
Reuters