Alexander Zverev escapes against Nakashima in three sets at Roland Garros

Alexander Zverev controlled the match against Brandon Nakashima rather well at Roland Garros but he nearly threw away the 3rd set in typical Sascha fashion ultimately winning 7-6(2) 6-3 7-6(5).

It was a very solid match between Zverev and Nakashima as the American produced a very solid effort. Zverev had to dig deep into his bag of tricks to pull this one out in three sets but he was able to do so. It's a clear improvement from his past match as he did not wait for two sets to start playing well. Zverev and Nakashima played incredibly well when serving in the first set.

Neither allowed much and the few break points they did allow were saved comfortably. In the tiebreak, however, Zverev turned it up and he won it 7-2. Nakashima committed far too many mistakes in that tiebreak for it to remain close. The 2nd set was another good one from Zverev but this around he dominated from the start. He never ran into a problem on his serve and one break was more than enough to secure the win.

The 3rd set was a proper battle between the players. Both had fantastic moments with Zverev getting the first break 3-2. A very poor game where he committed a double and a couple of errors gave the break back to Nakashima. From there both cruised and we ended up in a tiebreak. Nakashima was a bit sharper early taking a 4-2 lead.

Zverev then won 5 of the next six points with some superb play to close it out 7-5. A good win from Zverev as his play improved from the past round considerably. That's a positive trend for him at the French Open.