The Brazilian duo Marcelo Melo and German Alexander Zverev made their winning debut on Wednesday (14) at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 (United States), a tournament that serves as preparation for the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season. Melo and Zverev defeated the North American hosts Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow by 2 sets to 1, with partial scores of 6/4, 6/7 (5-7) and 10/2. The Brazil-Germany partnership returns to the court on Thursday (15), against the duo of Salvadoran Marcelo Arevalo and Croatian Mate Pavic, with no set time yet.
“I’m very happy with the first round. I think we played very well. We took advantage of the chances we had throughout the match and were much better in the super tie-break. It was a great result, against a team that has been playing very well. They’ve just won two tournaments in a row, Atlanta and Washington. So, they were coming in with confidence, but we managed to play very well and that was really cool. Now, we have to use all this energy for the next match,” analyzed the Brazilian.
This is the fourth tournament that Melo and Zverev have played together this season. In April, they were runners-up at the ATP Monte Carlo (Monaco). They also played at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells (USA) and Rome (Italy).
Also on Thursday (15), Luisa Stefani from São Paulo, one of Brazil’s representatives at the Paris Games, will compete in the round of 16 of the women’s doubles alongside Dutchwoman Demi Shuurs, at a time yet to be defined. They will face Chinese players Yuan Yue and Wang Xiyu. In their debut, Stefani and Shuurs beat Romanian Monica Niculescu and Chinese player Guo Hanyu 6/1 and 7/5.
