Zverev fairytale continues

alexanderzverev

The 17-year-old German, playing in only his fifth senior tournament, added the Colombian to his list of scalps at the ATP 500 clay-court event with a 6-4 7-6 (8-6) win.

Giraldo, the 11th seed, joins Mikhail Youzhny and Robin Haase in going out to the home favourite this week after he was only able to break serve once in the match.

Zverev was excellent on serve throughout the match and proved clinical when presented with opportunities to break, seizing on his second such opening in the fifth game.

A break in the seventh game of the second set gave Zverev the advantage but he missed his first match-point opening at 5-4 with the serve.

However, the teenager held his nerve in the breaker to secure a memorable triumph.

Next up for Zverev is Tobias Kamke after he also caused an upset in the third round by edging a three-set battle with fourth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-5 2-6 7-5.

And to complete a tough day for the seeded players Tommy Rodbredo is also out after he was beaten in straight sets by the big-serving Lukas Rosol.

There were no such problems for top seed David Ferrer, though, as he served nine aces and won 65 per cent of points on his own serve to beat Andreas Seppi 6-3 3-6 6-3.

Ferrer will meet Pablo Andujar after his straight-sets win over Dustin Brown, and Rosol's next challenge will be against Philipp Kohlschreiber, who beat Gilles Simon 7-5 6-3.

Dominic Thiem suffered a 6-3 6-2 loss to Leonardo Mayer, while Dusan Lajovic progressed after Filip Krajinovic retired through injury at 3-1 down.

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