Defending champion Alexander Zverev came back from a set down Camilo Ugo Cararbelli 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 7-5 to reach the third round at the Paris Rolex Masters at la Defense Arena. The German player improved to 2-0 in his head-to-head matches against Carabelli.
Zverev has extended his winning streak at the Paris Masters 1000 tournament to six consecutive matches.
Zverev moved past Novak Djokovic into third place in the ATP Live to Turin. The German player will face Alejanddro Davidovich Fokina, who beat wild card Arthur Cazaux 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
Both players held serve in the first set without facing any breveak points en route to the tie-break. Carabelli earned the only mini-break to take a 6-3 lead, but he squandered three set points before claiming the tie-break 7-5.
Zverev broke twice in the second and sixth games and served out the second set 6-1 on his first set point in the second game forcing the match to the match to the decider.
Carabelli broke in the fourth game of the decisive set to take a 3-1 lead, but Zverev converted his third break-back point in the fifth game and held serve at 30 in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Both players held on serve until the 11thgame when Zverev earned the decisive break. Zverev served out the win at love with a forehand that carabelli was not able to return.
“Definitely it was a good win. Especially after a tough loss last week. To come out here, and I didn’t expect him to play the way he did, to be perfectly honest. t’s something I have to learn from. I played him in Rome, and he was nowhere near that level. That’s a mistake from me. I have to prepare better for my opponents, but he was fantastic today”, said Zverev.
