Alexander Zverev’s woes have continued in Rome after losing to Matteo Berretini 7-5 7-5 in the second round.
The German has continued his poor form as he lost in straight sets to in-form Italian Matteo Berrettini in the second round.
There was no sign of an increase in confidence as he will lose most of his final points from last year that he had to defend.
Zverev’s next tournament is the second grand slam of the year in Paris in a couple of weeks while Berrettini faces either Diego Schwartzman or Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the third round.
It was a good start from Berrettini who had great confidence from winning Budapest a few weeks ago and reaching the final in Munich a week later.
As expected there was a response from the German who forced the Italian to hit some unforced errors and recovered from 0-3 down to level the set at 3-3.
However the problems continued for the German who was out of confidence and couldn’t find a middle ground between being too passive and very aggressive.
This cost him especially on the break points in the eleventh game as he couldn’t find the clinical edge needed to have the opportunity to close out the set.
As a result Berrettini held and broke a disgruntled Zverev in the next game as he took the opening set to a massive roar inside court Centrale.
It was a brighter start from Zverev in the second set who broke for a 2-0 lead as he looked to show fight, just like his other clay-court matches this season.
But the German didn’t have the confidence and the ability to take advantage as the Italian broke back with some good returning.
Later in the set there was some good grit shown by the 2017 champion as he saved a few match points with home crowd getting heavily involved with the match.
Despite holding for 5-5, Zverev couldn’t hold again as he succumbed to another defeat with Berrettini making the third round in his home city.
https://twitter.com/ATP_Tour/status/1128311607107387395
Another tough and devastating loss shows the German is at a low in confidence, which doesn’t bode well heading into Roland Garros in a couple of weeks.
As for Berrettini, he is into the third round and continues his good run of form, where he will face Diego Schwartzman or Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
