Alexander Zverev backed up his Olympic triumph with a fifth ATP Masters 1000 title as he crushed Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-3 in Cincinnati on Su...
Alexander Zverev backed up his Olympic triumph with a fifth ATP Masters 1000 title as he crushed Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-3 in Cincinnati on Sunday.
The German needed less than an hour against his longtime childhood friend and rival to lift the trophy and put himself into a solid position with the US Open starting a week from Monday.
“The US Open starts in a week’s time, so obviously I want to keep it up and I want to maybe play even better there,” Zverev said.
Zverev showed no effects from the stomach discomfort which forced him to take a medical timeout during his draining semi-final victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Saturday.
Zverev won his 11th match in a row and his fifth against Rublev, a player he’s been playing since their junior days.
The German came into the week with six defeats in prior Cincinnati appearances, but turned that negative on its head.
“My first win here was on Wednesday and now I’m holding the title four days later,” he said.
“It’s been an incredible week, I had a lot of great matches. It’s a great feeling going into the Open.”
Zverev kept his unforced error count to just six, though he was out-aced by Rublev 11 to six. The third seed produced 16 winners...
