“I’m happy to be back here. I’m happy to have my first win,” said Zverev, who was injured last year and served 16 aces. Zverev had to survive a setback in the third set. The German turned and fell to the ground. A whisper spread among the spectators and memories of his serious injury at the French Open 2022 were briefly awakened. But he got up again, served up his services and scored a somewhat surprising victory shortly afterwards.
Two-time final winners Zverev and Alcaraz’s other preliminary round opponents are Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrej Rublev, who face each other from 9 p.m.
