In the footsteps of Steffi Graf: German Alexander Zverev is the Olympic tennis champion at Tokyo 2020

08/01/2021 7:27 AM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 08/01/2021 8:19 AM

The German tennis player Alexander Zverev, 24 years old and number 5 in the world ranking, was proclaimed the new Olympic champion by beating this Sunday in the final of the men's individual tournament of the Tokyo 2020 Games to the Russian Karen Khachanov (No. 25) by a clear 6-3 and 6-1.

The German, who in the semifinals defeated the great favorite of the tournament, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, wins the first gold medal for Germany in tennis since 1988, when Steffi Graf won it in the women's single.

Zverev was the best in the Ariake Tennis Park and this was confirmed in the final against Khachanov, in which he did not have a hard time and defined very early in his favor.

Already in the third game he was able to break the service of the Russian and directed a first set that was "sewing and singing" due to the unforced errors of his opponent.

In the ninth he confirmed the first set with another break, which left him in a remarkable position to finish off Khachanov, unaccustomed to defining matches.

Zverev broke the Russian in the second and fourth serve and ratified - with his service - a historic gold medal for Germany.

Zverev succeeds Briton Andy Murray, winner in Rio 2016, and achieves the first gold metal in history for German men's tennis in the men's singles, where he was already very close to achieving it in Sydney 2000 with the silver of Tommy Haas, who he fell in the final to Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Source: agencies