Zverev makes statement of intent

Alexander Zverev gave a pretty fair impression of a man on a mission as he opened his Roland-Garros account for 2018 on Sunday with a bullying 6-1 6-1 6-2 first round victory over Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis.

Twelve months ago, Germany’s boy wonder came to Paris, buoyed by an Italian Open triumph and hailed even as a potential victor, only to run into Fernando Verdasco. He went home with a smashed racquet, a vulgar word about the quality of his display and left everyone wondering when we were ever going to see the best of this formidable young talent in a Grand Slam tournament.

Well, maybe that time - ‘Sascha time’ - is imminent. The No.2 seed, on a similar pre-Paris roll to last year with clay-court triumphs at Munich and Madrid under his belt, could not have looked more intent on making his opening declaration this year on Court Suzanne-Lenglen as he blitzed the hapless world No.92 in just 69 minutes.

Asked if it might have been his quickest-ever Grand Slam win, a delighted Zverev told the crowd afterwards: "Probably. It’s always good to get a straight-sets win at the start of the tournament. I was very happy out there and I'm looking forward to the next one.”

Of course, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves here. First of all, Berankis, a squat battler with no real weapon to offer but sweat and tears, provided not the remotest hint of Verdasco-style menace and, anyway, it’s not these sort of journeyman that Sascha has been unable to put away but rather the top-50 players - none of whom, remarkably, he has yet to beat in any of his 11 previous Grand Slam appearances.

When asked about this sort of under-performance in Slams which has also seen him never yet able to get past the last-16 round, he noted a mite miserably in January after going out to Hyeon Chung in the third round of the Australian Open that it wasn’t a physical failing but maybe partly that he put too much expectation pressure on himself to succeed at the slams.

"I'm still young, so I got time,” he shrugged at the time and he was even given a world of encouragement from Roger Federer, who told him words to the effect of ‘give yourself time, maybe set the bar a bit lower, be patient, and learn from these mistakes.’”

Only time will tell later in this tournament if Sascha has heeded his advice - if he gets to the fourth round, he could well face one of either Stan Wawrinka, Lucas Pouille or Karen Khachanov - but for starters, he certainly resembled a relaxed figure both in his merciless overpowering of Berankis and his post-match banter with on-court interviewer Fabrice Santoro, laughing about the time he practised with the Frenchman when he was 12 and even then was almost tall as the little wizard.

In terms of saving himself precious energy for the tests to come, this was supremely efficient stuff, although he was aided significantly by Berankis’s 30 recorded unforced errors. Thirty might be a harsh figure, though, because his work was so hurried in the face of Zverev’s power, which also brought the German 29 winners.

It was all so hopelessly one-sided that the Lenglen crowd rather took Berankis to their hearts, at one point in the second set starting up a crescendo of applause to try to inspire him when he was facing break point. He responded with an ace, a pumped fist and a wry smile amid laughter all round. Moments later, though, he was broken yet again.

Zverev just would not let up, though. “I have won two tournaments, made the finals in Rome; again, losing to Rafa (Nadal) in a close match. I feel good, and today was a good start to the tournament, and I'm happy the way it's going.”