One is 18 years old and the other 17. What we witnessed today on centre court at the Stockholm Open could well be the first episode of many battles between two of the future stars of the game.
Alexander Zverev, younger brother of Mischa, knocked out Mikael Ymer, younger brother of Elias, in a thrilling encounter 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. Both players displayed more than enough tennis to suggest they’re going to make huge shockwaves in this sport but they also showed their inexperience as Ymer threw away a hefty lead in the first set and then Zverev didn’t manage to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set, allowing the younger Swede to take the match to the third set.
The German ultimately prevailed in the final set, making use of his greater experience at this level, as Ymer was playing in his first ever ATP Tour main draw match, having spent the entire season on the Futures and Junior tour.
This was the first time Zverev took on a younger player than himself on tour and after the match he said, “Ymer played unbelievably from the beginning and I wasn’t expecting that. He just need to keep working hard and he’ll be someone to look out for in the future. I don’t think he was nervous at all today. In the second set I was in control but he fought back well. It was an interesting match in the end”.
Zverev will now face top seed Berdych in the second round.
Other results today included a win for in-form John Millman against Benjamin Becker and victory for Fernando Verdasco over Denis Kudla.
Nicolas Almagro’s defeat in the final qualifying round against world number 243 Maximilian Marterer was the other noteworthy result of the day as the Spaniard continues to struggle on his return to the tour after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a foot injury.
Most of the players will be in action tomorrow in Stockholm with Chardy v Kokkinakis, Sock v Carreño and Krajinovic v Dimitrov some of the standout matches
