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Alexander Zverev won the German first round duel with Daniel Altmaier
Photo: Hamish Blair/AP
The German tennis star Alexander Zverev made a difficult start at the Australian Open: In the German first round duel, the third in the world rankings won against Daniel Altmaier, who played strongly at times, 7: 6 (7: 3), 6: 1, 7: 6 (7: 1).
In the third set, Zverev conceded a break to make it 2: 3, but was able to avoid a longer tennis evening.
“You won't always play your best tennis.
It was a good match for me to get into the tournament and hopefully the next one will be better," said Zverev.
"Not much went according to plan, except that I won." In the second round, Zverev meets Australian John Millman, the German is especially important after the departure of Novak Djoković together with Daniil Medvedev, who on Tuesday night enters as the top favorite for the title.
In addition to Zverev, Dominik Koepfer, Oscar Otte and Yannik Hanfmann also made it into the second round on the first day of the tournament.
Hanfmann now meets the Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal.
Only Kerber there
For Andrea Petkovic, however, the Australian Open is already over.
The 34-year-old lost 2: 6, 0: 6 against the French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova and then spoke of a “pitty black day”.
Only three Germans were represented in the main women's field of the Grand Slam tournament, because Tatjana Maria also lost her first round game, only Angelique Kerber remains.
Naomi Osaka won her first round match against Colombian Camila Osorio 6:3, 6:3.
After the US Open last September, the four-time Grand Slam tournament winner retired from tennis and took a longer break.
She had previously made her depression public.
Osaka has slipped to 14th place in the world tennis rankings.
hba/dpa/sid