Zverev wins all-nighter at Cincinnati, depleted Djokovic feels the heat in opening loss

CINCINNATI – Top seed and French Open champion Alexander Zverev squeezed out an opening 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Cameron Norrie in a Cincinnati Masters match that took two hours and 45 minutes and ended at 2.15am on Aug 16.

Britain’s Norrie has now lost all eight of his matches against the German, winner of the Cincinnati title five years ago, who is hoping a return to Ohio will help him shake off an abrupt exit in Canada last week.

Norrie, 30, had wrapped up the opening set before Zverev began to find his footing to level the match.

Norrie saved six break points in a 12-minute game to begin the deciding set but was broken twice as Zverev advanced.

“I needed to get a match rhythm,” said Zverev, 29, who fell to world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final in July.

“The confidence was not there after Canada.

“The first set was not great, but the other two were at a high level and I’m happy about that.”

Earlier on Aug 15, Novak Djokovic suffered in the second set from punishing heat and humidity but made a match of it before falling 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Argentinian Thiago Tirante in what could be the Serb’s last appearance at the tournament.

The second-round battle lasted for more than 2½ hours, and it proved too much for the 24-time Grand Slam champion, who was playing his first match since he lost to Sinner in the Wimbledon semi-finals more than a month ago.

Djokovic, 39, who won the last of his three Cincinnati titles in 2023, claimed the opening set with little fuss.

But the sweltering afternoon temperatures took a toll. “It was a combination of the heat and humidity, all those things,” he said. “Everything involved makes it worse.”

He won a brutal 18-minute third game of the second, saving four break points over nine deuces. But he was bending over in distress between points and even dropped to his hands and knees after one particularly gruelling exchange.

Djokovic took a medical timeout after that game, with the physio and then a doctor coming on court to assist with assessments and ice towels.

After Tirante took the second set, both players cooled off in the locker room.

Slightly revived, Djokovic set the pace again in the deciding set. But it all went wrong in the ninth game, when Djokovic saved three break points before getting it wrong on a drop shot to bring up a fourth break chance that his opponent converted.

Tirante clinched the biggest win of his career in the next game as Djokovic again failed to land a drop shot on match point.

The Serb, who must now try to regroup before the US Open starts on Aug 30, admitted he might have played his last match in Cincy.

“It looks like I won’t be back, unfortunately to play here,” he said, confirming that the sweltering weather got the better of him.

Tirante called the win the best of his career. “I managed the nerves of playing a legend like Novak. It was all so much pressure.”

Martin Landaluce beat Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to reach a third-round clash against Tirante. Zverev will next face Frenchman Terence Atmane.

‘Focused’ Eala advances

In the WTA draw, Philippine sensation Alexandra Eala advanced to the third round 6-1, 3-0 as injured Elena-Gabriela Ruse quit their match during a weather delay.

The Romanian had received treatment on her right ankle just before play was halted by a thunderstorm. During the 90-minute delay, Ruse pulled the plug on her effort, sending world No. 20 Eala through.

Eala, the emerging WTA star who captured her first WTA title in Washington in August, will next play Amanda Anisimova after the American ninth seed beat Turk Zeynep Sonmez 6-2, 6-3.

As always, Eala was supported by a vocal contingent of compatriots, with Philippine flags displayed in abundance.

The 21-year-old has enjoyed similar support around the world – in her run to the second week of Wimbledon, her breakthrough win in Washington and at August’s 1000 event in Toronto, where she was beaten in the fourth round by Swiss veteran Belinda Bencic.

Eala and Ruse swapped breaks in the first two games before Eala ran off six straight games to pocket the set and was in command when the storm struck.

“I was playing well and feeling really focused,” Eala said. “I tried to stay in the zone.

“A retirement is not the way you want to end a match, I wish her a speedy recovery. Injuries are not fun.”

Roland Garros finalist Maja Chwalinska advanced 6-2, 6-2 over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa, the Pole getting her first win since Paris after suffering an injury at Wimbledon and taking a month away.

Wimbledon winner Linda Noskova followed suit, with the Czech defeating Britain’s Katie Boulter 6-3, 6-3.

Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya ousted Cincinnati local Caty McNally 6-3, 6-4, while Poland’s Magdalena Frech beat Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 6-3. AFP