Alexander Zverev loses his temper but wins Roland Garros second round match

French Open
Alexander Zverev

Alexander Zverev fought back from a match point down to oust Sebastian Baez and stay in the French Open.

Zverev lost his cool as things weren’t going his way early on.

After serving a double fault to hand Baez a break early in the second set, Zverev attracted the crowds attention when he appeared to angrily yell at someone in his player box.

He recovered from losing his cool to save a match point when trailing 4-5, 30/40 in the fifth set and held firm to complete a 2-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 7-5 victory.

Zverev had already mustered a mid-match turnaround and overcome a two-set deficit on centre court.

The German struggled to find his level throughout the three-hour, 36-minute slog to victory, but his big serve and lethal backhand were the foundation for a fightback achieved without the backing of the crowd.

Even if Zverev came into the match with a 5-0 record in second-round matches at Roland Garros, that perfect record looked in serious danger.

Baez broke the Zverev serve in the opening game to set the tone for an early tribulation for the third seed.

The Argentine broke again in the fifth game and charged to the first set, with Zverev struggling to adjust to a strong wind which played its part in his outburst.

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Beaz controlled the game early on with monster forehands and that persisted into the second set and he also deployed his drop shot to good effect.

Zverev on the other hand laced confidence but eventually got it right to power his way out of trouble, although at first he was only able to hand Baez a 4-0 lead.

After fending off three break points to hold for 1-4, however, the match shifted in Zverev’s favour.

It came too late to prevent the Argentine clinching the second set, but Zverev was back in the game.

He took the next two sets to force a decider and despite slipping to the point where Baez had a match point, Zverev held on for the set and match win.

Alexander Zverev

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