{"id":523503,"date":"2026-03-06T23:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523503\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T23:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:45:17","slug":"tennis-atp-bnp-paribas-open-2026-zverev-downs-berrettini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523503\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis, ATP \u2013 BNP Paribas Open 2026: Zverev downs Berrettini"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander Zverev launched his 2026 BNP Paribas Open campaign with a statement of intent on Friday evening, overpowering Italy\u2019s Matteo Berrettini <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennismajors.com\/matches\/atp\/bnp-paribas-open\/matteo-berrettini-vs-alexander-zverev\" data-type=\"match\" data-id=\"845871\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6-3, 6-4<\/a>. On a windy Stadium 1 court that has historically troubled his timing, the German delivered one of his most efficient serving performances to date, requiring only 72 minutes to dispatch the former Wimbledon finalist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very happy with the start\u201d, Zverev said during his on-court interview. \u201cI felt like I was hitting the ball extremely clean from the first game. This tournament is the only one of its kind I haven\u2019t had a deep run in, so that is definitely the goal this week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>6 points lost on his serve!<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of the encounter was Zverev\u2019s absolute authority on serve. The 28-year-old No. 4 seed conceded a staggering total of only six points on his delivery across both sets, spanning both first and second serves. Berrettini, usually a formidable returner with his aggressive forehand, was left searching for answers, failing to generate a single break point opportunity throughout the match.<\/p>\n<p>While the 29-year-old Berrettini (now world No. 66) entered the contest buoyed by a gritty three-set win over Adrian Mannarino, he was unable to withstand Zverev\u2019s baseline depth. The German secured three breaks of serve to improve his perfect hard-court head-to-head record against the Italian to 3-0.<\/p>\n<p>Never reached the semis<\/p>\n<p>With this victory, Zverev moves to 164 career match wins at the ATP Masters 1000 level. He now stands in an elite bracket; among active players, only Novak Djokovic (418) and Stan Wawrinka (166) have recorded more wins in this category.<\/p>\n<p>Remarkably, Indian Wells remains the only Masters 1000 tournament where Zverev has never reached the semi-finals. Having never progressed past the quarter-finals in the California desert, his current form suggests he is a primary contender to break that streak in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patrickmouratoglou.com\/en\/champion-mindset-pre-order\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"mx-auto\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Banner-Social-Media-Facebook-scaled.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"aspect-3-1 mx-auto max-w-full overflow-hidden object-cover md:max-w-xl\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Zverev advances to the round of 32, where he awaits the winner of the match between American Brandon Nakashima (No. 28 seed) and Argentinian Camilo Ugo Carabelli.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev launched his 2026 BNP Paribas Open campaign with a statement of intent on Friday evening, overpowering&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-523503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}