Zverev survives ankle scare at US Open, captures 450th win

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a moved closer to capturing his first major title at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a on Sunday when he ended American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/brandon-nakashima/n0ae/overview'Brandon Nakashima/a’s run to reach the quarter-finals in New York for the fourth time./p

pThe German dictated after a slow start on Louis Armstrong Stadium to earn a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win. With his two-hour, 38-minute triumph, Zverev notched his 450th win./p

p"I was extremely defensive at the beginning of the match and Brandon used it very well and played an awesome set," Zverev said. "I knew that I had to step up my game and take the ball on the rise more and I did well today and I am happy to be back in the quarter-finals."/p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"A special achievement for a href="https://twitter.com/AlexZverev?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@AlexZverev/a ????brbrThe No. 4 seed sees off Nakashima 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 to reach his fourth consecutive a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#USOpen/a quarter-final! a href="https://t.co/G3xnacYuoX"pic.twitter.com/G3xnacYuoX/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1830385015672193525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 1, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

pZverev looked on course for a comfortable win in the fourth set when he almost turned his right ankle when chasing a ball down on the forehand wing at 3-1. Despite showing a look of anguish on his face after the point, Zverev showed little sign of discomfort following the brief scare, winning three of the next four games to advance. The 27-year-old injured his right ankle during his semi-final match against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'Roland Garros/a in 2022 and missed the rest of the season./p

pFit and firing again, the fourth seed is chasing his maiden Grand Slam trophy. Zverev, currently No. 2 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, lost in a deciding-set tie-break to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/dominic-thiem/tb69/overview'Dominic Thiem/a in the 2020 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a final and fell in the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'Roland Garros/a championship match to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/carlos-alcaraz/a0e2/overview'Carlos Alcaraz/a in five sets earlier this year./p

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pAfter Nakashima held his own in the first set, Zverev timed the ball cleanly in sets two, three and four to generate easy power. The 22-time tour-level titlist won 89 per cent (51/57) of his first-serve points against Nakashima, who was aiming to reach his first major quarter-final./p

pZverev’s reward for improving to 3-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the former a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/next-gen-atp-finals/7696/overview'Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF/a champion is a meeting against American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a./p

p"I am expecting a tough battle," said Zverev on facing Fritz, who beat the German at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a. "Every time I play Taylor it is a tough battle and I am expecting nothing less and hopefully it will be entertaining."/p

pZverev is seeking his second title of the season, having clinched his sixth ATP Masters 1000 crown in Rome. The fourth seed has earned a Tour-leading 56 wins in 2024 and is second in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin./p

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