MELBOURNE, Australia — Third-seeded Alexander Zverev shrugged off a sluggish start to power through his first-round match against rising star Gabriel Diallo as the Australian Open got underway on Sunday.
Zverev, the runner-up at Melbourne Park last year, slumped in the first set against the 24-year-old Canadian before rallying on the back of his strong serve to win 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena. He’s into the second round at Melbourne Park for the 10th straight year.
“Definitely when I saw the draw, wasn’t too happy to be honest,” Zverev said in an on-court interview, speaking of the tricky challenge presented by No. 41-ranked Diallo. “He’s very young, very talented. Unbelievably aggressive.
“First set wasn’t my best tennis, I would say. I was thinking, ‘can’t get worse than that.” It got a lot better after that for me.”
No. 20 Flavio Cobolli became the first of the seeded men’s players to exit the tournament in a 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1 loss to British qualifier Arthur Fery.
Also, No. 18 seed Francisco Cerundolo beat Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 7-6 (0), 6-3, and No. 32 seed Corentin Moutet held off Tristan Schoolkate 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-3, finishing with an under-arm serve on match point.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
