Zverev eliminated from interrupted first round at French Open

Germany's promising tennis star Alexander Zverev experienced a disappointing maiden French Open appearance as he lost to Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 2-6 in an interrupted men's first round encounter at the Roland Garros here on Tuesday.

The match-up scheduled on Monday was halted by darkness when the two players tied 1-1. However, the ninth-seeded Zverev would rather blame his poor performance on court for his humiliating loss than the interruption, reports Xinhua news agency.

"It's quite simple," he commented. "It was unfortunate that the matches before took so long and that we couldn't finish yesterday, but it was the right decision to stop."

The 20-year-old Zverev was seen as a potential challenger to title favourites in the French Open after he moved up into the top 10 for the first time with his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Rome.

But the sensational German youngster suffered a total of 50 unforced errors against the world No. 37.

"He played very well and very smart. He tried to push me back a lot. I didn't feel the ball on my racquet very well, so I played very short and very defensive all the time, which is not easy to do with my game and my body," said Zverev.

As for his plan for the next few weeks, Zverev said that he needed a few days off, before considering his preparation for the grass season to come.

"I'll prepare the best I can for grass. We'll see what tournaments I play there," he said.

--IANS

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