Shanghai, Oct 9 (IANS): Alexander Zverev overcame a brief scare and a stumble in his round 2 clash against home boy Wu Yibing with 6-4, 7-6 (4) win at the Shanghai Masters to march into the third round here on Friday.
Zverev fell late into the second set when he was leading 6-5, 5-5 in the round of 64 as he seemingly twisted his ankle after hitting a backhand from the left side of the court.
However, the German stood up and moved well to close out the second set in a tie-break to win the match in one hour and 36 minutes and move into the next round.
“He hits every ball as hard as he can, so the match doesn’t depend on you too much apart from your serve,” Zverev said after the win over the Chinese. “I thought I was serving ok, but everything else is in his hands, and he was playing well in the second set, so I am pleased to have got through in straight sets.”
Meanwhile, World No. 7 Flavio Cobolli was earlier stunned by 83-ranked Adrian Mannarino in the second round 1-6, 6-4, 3-6. Cobolli had earlier also suffered an opening-round defeat last week in Beijing, and failed to get into his own in Shanghai.
Earlier, Ben Shelton celebrated his 24th birthday with a win over Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 7-6(6). Shelton recently made it to the US Open final, where he lost to Zverev and is now chasing his second Masters 1000-level title after winning the Canada Masters earlier in the year.
Earlier, Japanese qualifier Rei Sakamoto stunned former finalist Andrey Rublev in the second round, 6-4, 6-4 at Court 3.
The World No. 137 produced a stellar performance as he defeated the World No.23 in straight sets in a one hour and 22-minute long battle. Sakamoto broke Rublev twice in the match and saved both break points to march into the round of 32.
