Zverev overcome slight hiccup against Harris, moves to bett1HULKS Cologne semifinal

Alexander Zverev was forced to play three sets today but he overcame the challenge and moved past Harris to reach the bett1HULKS Cologne semifinal.

Alexander Zverev opened the programme in Cologne today with a match against George Harris. The match lasted 105 minutes and it saw Zverev win in three sets 6-4 3-6 6-0. The first set stellar play from Zverev who played a similar style as in the previous round, His service games were dominated with strong serves and attacking play which brought him much success. Harris surrendered his own serve rather early and he had to save several more breakpoints. Ultimately the set went to Zverev 6-4 who played marvellously not allowing any breakpoints.

The 2nd set was a bit of a different story. It was Harris who dominated with his serve especially on his 1st serve where he only dropped 3 points in the whole set. Zverev struggled quite a bit on his own serve winning 50 % of the points on both of them. That allowed Harris to play more aggressively resulting in an increase of winners. Late in the set, he broke Zverev to take a 5-3 lead which he converted to a 6-3 2nd set victory.

The final set which lasted only 28 minutes was a bit of a curiosity as Zverev gave Harris a bagel as a parting gift. Everything that worked for the South African in the previous set didn't work now. Zverev was just all over the court hitting winner after winner. It's hard to say whether Zverev held back in the previous sets and unleashed his full force in this final one. Harris did play a terrible set but a thrashing of this sort was not expected.

All in all, the German crowd was delighted to see their native player advance to the semifinal and keep hopes of a German winner alive.