Alexander Zverev started his clay-court season with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Alexander Bublik to reach the second round at the Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday.
The 13th-seeded German was playing on clay for the first time since a right ankle injury forced him to retire in the French Open semi-finals against Rafael Nadal last year.
Zverev said he needed to “get the injury out of my head” and get used to sliding again.
“It felt awful at times to be honest,” Zverev said. “Tactically he played well, he didn’t let me play my game at all. He didn’t let me have my rhythm and he almost won the match, just a few points here and there.”
Still, Zverev limited his unforced errors to nine and hit 21 winners on Court Rainier III to set up a match against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the next round.
In another game, two-time semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov advanced by beating American Ben Shelton 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. The 20-year-old Shelton made his debut at Monte Carlo and did not disappoint, testing Dimitrov in a tense contest that lasted more than two hours.
“It is one of those matches that I just needed to go through,” Dimitrov said. “I played a lot of good tennis. There were a lot of positives to take out of that.”
Thiem upbeat
The lingering effects of a 2021 wrist injury limited Dominic Thiem’s ability to generate power last year but the former world No.3 said he can rely on his big weapons again after making a strong start.
Thiem broke the grand slam stranglehold of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic by winning the 2020 US Open. But the injury sidelined him for months and other niggles saw him slip down the rankings to No. 352 last June.
After a first-round exit at the Australian Open, and disappointing performances in the tournaments that followed, Thiem made the quarter finals of the Estoril Open and beat Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-4 in his opener in Monaco.
“Some positive signs happened already in Estoril and today (Monday), I had the feeling that I was doing from time to time good damage with both forehand and backhand,” said Thiem, who next plays Holger Rune.
“The power wasn’t there last year even when I started to win matches. In the last month it’s coming back, especially in practice. The shots are there, the power is there like before, but I was using it wrong. There’s full trust again in the wrist and the forehand,” he said.
A return to top form on clay would be an encouraging sign for the world No. 106 ahead of the French Open, where he reached the final in 2018 and 2019 before losing to Nadal on both occasions.
After announcing at the weekend he had split with coach Nicolas Massu, Thiem has joined up with Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh and hopes the partnership will bear fruit.
