✅ First win against Murray ✅ First IW fourth round #BNPPO21
It was a very entertaining match between Zverev and Murray in the afternoon at Indian Wells. The start of the match featured a very shaky start by Alexander Zverev who did not serve well and generally had trouble putting the ball into the court. Murray was on the other hand very solid taking a 3-0 lead. He would then miss a golden opportunity to close out the first set by completely falling apart himself.
His forehand started to overhit on many of his shots and generally, it was all over the place for the remainder of the set. Zverev went on to win 5 games in a row taking a 5-3 lead. The German started playing a lot better towards the end of the set with his serve doing quite the damage as well. In the end, he won it with 6-4 behind 19 winners and 15 unforced errors.
The 2nd set featured a bit of vintage Murray who was excellently covering the field never late for any ball. Zverev was becoming quite frustrated with his play that was once again filled with errors. Murray took a 3-1 lead and looked comfortable enough on the court. However, he started complicating matters once more by going for the drop shot quite a few times too many. In one of those plays, Zverev created an unbelievable winner to break back.
After that players mostly played game by game with both controlling their service games well enough. Murray had brilliant moments but he never quite found the breakthrough with Zvere's serve starting to become a factor as well. The crucial game was played at 5-5 with Zverev breaking the Brith to take a 6-5 lead. Murray served a double fault on the break point.
Zverev was excellent all day on break points converting 4 of 6. However, Murray found a way to break back and force a tiebreak. In it, it was all Zverev early taking a 3-0 lead. The German held on to the lead and closed it out with a spectacular rally in the final point.
✅ First win against Murray ✅ First IW fourth round #BNPPO21