LONDON: Fourth seed Alexander Zverev survived an injury scare and an epic third-set tiebreak to beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie and match his best Wimbledon run by reaching the fourth round for the third time today.
The German produced a sensational display of serving to win 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(15) – finally ending Norrie’s rugged resistance by converting his sixth match point.
Zverev, 27, dropped only two points on serve in the third set, although one of them was a double-fault that gave Norrie an early advantage in the tiebreak.
Norrie had five set points of his own to extend the contest and ask questions of Zverev’s knee which he appeared to strain when sliding and falling awkwardly early in the second set.
But Zverev, who struck the ball with clinical precision throughout the contest, never wavered and a Norrie cracked first on the 32nd point of the fiercely contested tiebreak, sending a shot over the baseline to end the duel.