PARIS, May 30, 2017

Fernando Verdasco beat a rather flat and dejected Alexander Zverev from Germany 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in Tuesday’s conclusion of their first round encounter on Philippe Chatrier. The match was suspended after the end of the second set yesterday due to bad light.

The unseeded Spaniard broke serve eight times to finish the encounter after two hours and 52 minutes and will face the Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the next round.

Zverev was obviously disappointed after his second main draw appearance in Paris. “I played absolute shit. That made the difference. It’s quite simple,” said the 20-year-old, who produced 50 unforced errors.

“Fernando played very smart as well. Tried to push me back a lot, which he did. And I didn’t feel the ball on my racquet very well, so I played very short and very defensive all the time, which with my game and with my body, it’s not easy to do,” told Zverev, who had arrived in Paris as the winner in Munich and Rome.

“It’s just this is our sport. There is no regrets. I mean, what can you do? In Rome I played fantastic, I won the tournament. Here I played bad, I lost in the first round. That’s the way it goes. I’ll prepare the best I can for grass. We’ll see what tournaments I play there. I’m playing Halle for sure. We’ll see if I play something else maybe.” 

There might be a good chance that Zverev will take a wild card into the MercedesCup in Stuttgart. The ATP 250 grass court event is going to be held right after the end of Roland Garros.