Alexander Zverev reaches Toronto R4 with 500th career win; next faces familiar rival | ATP Tour

Match Report
Zverev reaches Toronto R4 with 500th career win; next faces familiar rival

Top seed needs nearly three hours to advance

August 01, 2025

Peter Power/National Bank Open Presented by Rogers

Alexander Zverev defeats Matteo Arnaldi 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday in Toronto to secure his 500th tour-level match win.
By ATP Staff

Alexander Zverev overcame a spirited effort from Matteo Arnaldi on Thursday at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers, where the top seed battled to 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 victory to claim his 500th tour-level match win.

“It’s a great achievement. There’s not a lot of players that reached that milestone,” Zverev said post-match. “Of course I still want 500 more hopefully to come, and maybe even more! When you start your career, you wish to play on Tour, you wish to have a successful career, win as many matches as possible. I think 500 is definitely a milestone, and I’m happy about that.”

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The 28-year-old, now 37-14 on the season, is the first man born in 1990 or later to record 500 tour-level wins. A seven-time ATP Masters 1000 champion, the German next faces a familiar rival in Argentine Francisco Cerundolo, who holds a perfect 3-0 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Zverev, with two of those wins coming this season (Buenos Aires, Madrid). Cerundolo, seeded 14th, ousted countryman Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-4.

Competing this fortnight for the first time since Wimbledon, Zverev was not at his best in his third-round victory, gifting Arnaldi a pair of set points in the opener — first with a routine backhand volley miss, then with a double fault at 4/5 in the tie-break. The 32nd seed seized his moment behind his own delivery, unloading a Serve +1 forehand to gain a one-set advantage.

The 2017 champion played into form as the match wore on, rarely allowing the Italian any looks on return. Across sets two and three, Zverev dropped just four points behind his first serve, according to the Infosys ATP Stats, to advance after two hours and 46 minutes. Zverev also made a noticeable effort to move forward throughout the night, converting 19 of 26 net points.

“I think I started playing better from the baseline. The longer the match went on, I started to find my rhythm a bit,” Zverev said. “It was actually my backhand that was feeling a bit off in the beginning, which is strange. Doesn’t happen very often. But after I found that shot, I was comfortable and I was happy about the level.”

The No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Zverev now leads Arnaldi 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Zverev beat Arnaldi earlier this year in Acapulco.

In other Toronto action, fifth seed Holger Rune marched past 29th seed Alexandre Muller 6-2, 6-4. Rune, a finalist at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells this year, did not face a break point against Muller and will next meet 10th seed Daniil Medvedev or defending champion Alexei Popyrin. Rune has earned two straight-set victories this week after withdrawing from Washington with a back injury. The Dane also spent three days practising with former No. 1 Andre Agassi at the ATP 500.