Fourth seed sees off familiar foe for eighth straight win on clay
©Loic Wacziak / FFTThe psychology of how a player backs up mentally following the emotional peaks of a high-profile outing comes under careful scrutiny and Alexander Zverev is showing just how it’s done through his two opening rounds at Roland-Garros.
Zverev and David Goffin have enough experience against big-name players to be wary of the pitfalls in a subsequent clash and on Thursday, the fourth seed followed up his defeat of Rafael Nadal with a 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-2 second-round win over the Belgian.
While Zverev was expected, on paper at least, to end Nadal’s campaign in the opening round, that downplayed the magnitude of facing the 14-time champion and a crowd heavily in the Spaniard’s favour over three hours.
Zverev prevailed in straight sets in what was shaped as possibly Nadal’s final Roland-Garros and was no doubt relieved he showed no dip in level against Goffin, a player he was far more heavily favoured to beat.
“Even before the match there was so many nerves, so much talk also going on,” Zverev said of the Nadal match. “I think since the draw came out the only thing that the tennis world was talking about was that match and rightly so… So after I beat him I feel like I already won the tournament.
“At the end it's still only a first round. You have to focus for another two weeks entirely. I was happy that I had another two days off because emotionally I had to calm myself down, I had to ground myself in a way as well and get back to work and get back to playing good tennis.”
More than six years removed from his best season in which he rose as high as world No.7 and beat No.1 Nadal and No.2 Roger Federer in succession to reach the title match at the ATP Finals, the Belgian arrived in Paris as world No.115.
The 33-year-old had found it difficult to rediscover his best following a stop-start run with injuries, but his form through two matches in Paris was a welcome hint he could still mount a push back well inside the top 100.
In the opening round, Goffin had to contend with a rowdy French crowd breathing down his neck as well as in-form Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard over five sets.
While there were moments of his silky movement and ball-striking against Zverev, especially in the opening set, Goffin found it tougher to back up from his three-hour, 35-minute tussle against arguably the most in-form player on tour.
©️Loic Wacziak / FFTNeither player budged an inch through the opening 12 games and while Goffin started the stronger of the two in the ensuing tie-break, a concentration lapse on a sprayed volley and miscued drop shot on consecutive points undid his early minibreak.
It was just the dip Zverev had been pressing for and he carried it into the second set with an early break.
A pair of double faults hurt the Belgian at 2-all in the third set as Zverev went on to break on a slightly mishit reflex volley.
It was a telling blow amid the fourth seed’s run of five straight games for the match.
“I think when it's heavy, when it's slow it's obviously not ideal for me,” Zverev said. “I am somebody that still tries to be a big hitter and still tries to be extremely aggressive, so when it's like that it's obviously not ideal but look I felt the ball well today.”
Amid the form and injury battles of the three Grand Slam champions ranked above him, Zverev laid down the marker with the Rome Masters 1000 title last week.
A semi-finalist in Paris for the past three years, there is a growing sense the German is knocking on the door of a first major.
More performances as polished as his first two would only boost the argument.
The 27-year-old improved his record over Goffin to 4-2 and it was only the second time their match had not gone the distance. He landed his eighth straight win on clay ahead of a third-round meeting with 26th seed Tallon Griekspoor or Italian Luciano Darderi.
“I knew that David is an incredible player,” Zverev said. “He's someone who was very difficult for me in the past as well so it showed in the first set and I'm obviously happy that I ran away with [the match] but obviously happy with the level of tennis.”
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
