COLOGNE, October 21, 2020

Alexander Zverev of Germany opened his title bid at the bettHULKS Championship with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 win over John Millman of Australia on Wednesday afternoon. The top seed of the second consecutive ATP 250 indoor tournament in Cologne, who lifted the bett1HULKS Indoors trophy inside the Lanxess Arena last week, sent down five aces and won 79 per cent of his first-service points to prevail after one hour and 54 minutes.

His biggest fan in Cologne 😍🐶@AlexZverev | @bett1hulks pic.twitter.com/i3WS9ubItn

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 21, 2020

“In the first set I thought I played flawlessly, but then I wasn’t focused at the beginning of the second [set] and the match could turn around,” said Zverev, who has extended his winning streak in Cologne to five matches. “John is someone who has beaten top players before… you’ve got to play until the end and I thought I did a poor job serving today. But I got the win somehow.”

The World No. 7 will take on Adrian Mannarino in the quarterfinals. The No. 8 seed from France defeated Miomir Kecmanovic from Serbia 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 17 minutes.

Later in the day, last week’s runner-up Felix Auger-Aliassime battled past Egor Gerasimov of Belarus 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(4). The No. 5 seed from Canada fired 15 aces and won 51 per cent of the total points played to secure victory in two hours and 45 minutes. Next up for Auger-Aliassime will be either Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan or Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who eased past Marco Cecchinato from Italy 6-3, 6-1.