Alexander Zverev lifts Madrid Open title
Zverev saw off Dominic Thiem in straight sets.
Alexander Zverev continued to underline his status as one of his sport’s new stars with a dominant performance to beat Dominic Thiem and claim the Madrid Open title on Sunday.
The 21-year-old stretched his run of consecutive set wins to 18 with his 6-4 6-4 success, which follows on from his triumph on clay at the BMW Open in Munich last week.
Thiem had stunned the seemingly unstoppable Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals but could not repeat the feat against Zverev.
Zverev won the title with a thrillingly aggressive performance, breaking Thiem in his opening service game and not giving the Austrian any chance of a break back as he took the first set.
Thiem was forced to save two more break points and Zverev – who did not face a single break point on his own serve – served out to take the title in style.
Triple grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka struggled on his return from a knee injury as he was beaten 6-4 6-4 by American Steve Johnson in the first round of the Rome Masters.
Twelfth seed Sam Querrey was upset 6-2 7-6 (9/7) by Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk while other first-round winners were Ryan Harrison, Jack Sock and Italian wild card Lorenzo Sonego.
