The No. 2 seed took the first men’s quarterfinal of this year’s event, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-1, after three hours and 22 minutes, but easily could have found himself facing a serious deficit against an opponent he was winless against in two previous meetings. Instead, Zverev awaits the winner of a primetime special between 10-time champion Novak Djokovic and world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz.
“It tried to request the night match but I was denied very quickly,” Zverev joked with Jim Courier afterwards.
“I absolutely love playing night matches here. I just feel the ball so well on my racquet and during the day, I kind of struggle a little bit more.
“Of course, I totally understand that Novak against Carlos is the highlight match. It’s probably the highlight match of the whole tournament.”
