Zverev Saves Four Set Points on a Troublesome Ankle to Beat Bublik in Shanghai

Alexander Zverev won his first match as the confirmed year-end world No. 1 the hard way in Shanghai on Tuesday: four set points saved in the opener, a break down in the deciding set, and a right ankle that has now complained in all three of his matches at the tournament. He beat Alexander Bublik 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(1) to reach the quarter-finals, Tennis365 reports, in just under three hours.

How close did Zverev come to losing the first set?

One point away, four separate times. Flashscore reports Bublik held four set points in the opener, including a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak, three points in a row from taking the set. Zverev won the tiebreak 8-6 instead. The rescue had to happen there because there was no other route back: Bublik was broken only once in the entire match, Flashscore reports, so return games offered Zverev almost nothing. A set that looked lost on the scoreboard became the set that decided the match, because Bublik spent the rest of the afternoon chasing the level he had held at 6-3 in that tiebreak.

What is wrong with Zverev’s ankle?

It is a problem that keeps returning rather than a single incident. Tennis365 reports the ankle bothered Zverev during his wins over Wu Yibing, whose post-match comments about Zverev’s behaviour started a separate Shanghai row, and Quentin Halys, and that he looked to be struggling physically at times against Bublik. In his on-court interview with Tennis TV afterwards, Zverev said the ankle was acting up again, linked it to the volume of tennis he has played, and said he is starting to feel his body more and more, Tennis365 reports. Three matches, three appearances of the same complaint: the pattern is now a story in itself, separate from any one scoreline.

How did the third set turn around?

In a single game. After Bublik took the second set with its only break, he broke again in the opening game of the third, TennisTemple reports. Zverev broke straight back to love, held serve from there, and then played the cleanest tennis of the match when it was worth most, taking the deciding tiebreak 7-1, TennisTemple reports. The contrast is the point: the man with the sore ankle and the heavier schedule won the physical contest at the end of it, against an opponent who had arrived through a three-set match in which he cut his own hand on a courtside cooler and still had a 3-1 head-to-head lead in this pairing.

Why did this match carry a No. 1 storyline?

Because the ranking was settled the day before, without Zverev playing. Bergs beat Alcaraz on Monday and handed Zverev the year-end No. 1, with Jannik Sinner’s season already over, and Flashscore describes the Bublik match as Zverev’s first since that confirmation. Zverev told Tennis TV the achievement feels different from winning a tournament, that the No. 1 carries a responsibility, and that reaching it close to 30 years old makes it special, Tennis365 reports. His first act with that status secured was not a coronation. It was a rescue job on one ankle, in a week that had already put him at the centre of practice-court claims from earlier in the tournament.

What happens next for Zverev in Shanghai?

A quarter-final against the last man to beat him. Alex de Minaur, the world No. 9, beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4 in the fourth round, and Flashscore notes de Minaur beat Zverev at the Laver Cup last month. The questions travel with Zverev into that match: whether the ankle holds through a fourth match in the tournament, and whether his serve, which carried him through two tiebreaks against Bublik, keeps covering for reduced movement. The rest of the Shanghai draw is producing its own shocks, from Arthur Gea’s run past Ben Shelton and Jakub Mensik to Bergs’s nine-minute toilet break against Alcaraz, but the top seed’s body is now the draw’s central uncertainty.