Both yet to tick the Grand Slam box off of their checklist, dreams of French Open glory will be dashed for one of Alexander Zverev or Holger Rune in Monday's fourth-round contest. The German came up trumps in an epic five-setter with Tallon Griekspoor in round three, while his Scandinavian foe sank lucky loser Jozef Kovalik in straight sets. © Reuters One day after his trial for alleged domestic abuse began, Zverev was perhaps understandably not completely on song against Dutch 26th seed Griekspoor, whose delicate drop shots deceived the German throughout their gripping four-hour and 14-minute battle.
The fourth seed was on the cusp of more Roland-Garros agony when Griekspoor established a 4-1 lead in the final set with a double break, but the never-say-die Zverev astoundingly fought back and blew away the beleaguered Dutchman in the final tie-breaker to triumph 3-6 6-4 6-2 4-6 7-6[3]. Even when his match-winning ace was originally called out, Zverev still had his arms held aloft in celebration as the chair umpire confirmed that his strike was good, and the German paid tribute to the "unbelievably dangerous" Griekspoor while revelling in another French Open third-round success. The reigning Italian Open champion has now been present at every Roland Garros fourth round since 2018 - losing just one of those six contests and winning each of his last three - and both David Goffin and 14-time winner Rafael Nadal fell to his superiority in the earlier rounds.
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