Alexander Zverev had a massive opportunity in front of him beginning in February. He was ranked as the ATP No. 2, comfortably in front of No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, but well behind No. 1 Jannik Sinner. But Zverev caught a break when Sinner was suspended for three months for failing two drug tests at Indian Wells in March 2024.
So far, Zverev has not taken advantage of his chance to get closer to No. 1. He has not made it past the quarterfinals in any tournament since falling to Sinner in the final of the Australian Open in January. This included being bounced out of back-to-back clay-court South American tournaments in which Zverev was the heavy favorite.
The German's best surface throughout his career has been clay. He has won 73 percent of his matches on clay, and his next-best surface is hard courts, where he has won 69 percent of the time. In other words, Zverev could have easily made up points on Sinner during a string of clay-court events and failed every time.
Matteo Berrettini dispatches Alexander Zverev at the Monte-Carlo Masters
Even with a victory at the Monte-Carlo Masters, he would trail the Italian, but at least the difference would be less than the 4,000 points it was after Sinner won in Australia. Zverev could also make up quite a bit of ground with a win at the Madrid Masters at the end of April. He lost in the round of 16 last year.
But he needed a great run in Monte-Carlo, an event he also lost in the round of 16 in 2024. In his first match of the tournament, he dominated Matteo Berrettini in the first set and appeared well on his way to an easy victory. But nothing has been easy for Zverev since January. After dropping the first set 2-6, the Italian took the second set 6-3.
The sets were mirror opposites. In the first, Zverev slashed away at Berrettini's second serve to win 63 percent of the points. The Italian was not playing poorly overall, but Zverev was not missing much.
In the second set, Zverev's serve began to leave him a bit and each point became more sluggish. Berrettini's forehand, one of the best on the ATP tour, was too powerful for Zverev, and the German seemed to become frustrated with himself.
The third set began tight, but Berrettini got a break to lead 4-3. His subsequent service game was challenging as Zverev got to a break point, but Berrettini got an ace to lead 5-3. Zverev held serve and then got a relatively easy break of the Italian to even the set at 5-all. The German appeared to have momentum on this break, but the match was never as it seemed at any given moment.
Both players performed brilliantly at times, but got into trouble too quickly in the next game. Such was the case on Zverev's attempt to hold. He trailed 15-40 but worked his way back. After getting to deuce again, the players had one of the best points of the year so far. A 48-shot rally went Berrettini's way, and he ended up with another break. He needed to hold to take the match and he did so to win 2-6 6-3 7-5.
In an earlier match, 10th-seed Holger Rune was forced to retire with an illness against Nuno Borges. Rune is the fourth seeded player to lose already after Zverev, 16-seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, and 11-seed Ben Shelton lost on Monday.