Zverev dominates Roger’s Cup

Alexander Zverev became the first man to stop Federer in a final this year as he won his fifth title of 2017 at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. 

The 20 year old German overcame a somewhat subdued Federer who appeared to be a little off pace, but a tired Federer does little to diminish the achievement of a fantastic tournament for the world’s top ‘Next Gen’ player.

Zverev stormed to a 4-1 lead by continuing the aggressive play that enabled him to overcome Richard Gasquet, Nick Kyrgios, Kevin Anderson and Denis Shapovalov on route to the final. His form continued throughout the first set, cruising to a 6-3 lead.

The transition into the second set did little to change the momentum of the match with Zverev threatening to break Federer’s serve in the early games before taking Federer’s serve at 3-3 comfortably.

From there, the promising youngster won both his remaining service games to love in an impressive show of strength.

The Rogers Cup title cements Zverev’s place at the top of the game as he becomes only the second current player outside of the ‘big four’ to win two masters finals; the title also sees him draw level with Federer on five titles this year.

The German is a product of today’s game with a big serve and weapons on both backhand and forehand; what has been so impressive this week however is the youngster’s mental game. Zverev looked composed and determined throughout the week and always looked like overcoming whomever stood on the other side of the net.

Next week the Cincinnati Open begins; Murray, Nishikori, Djokovic, Cilic and Wawrinka are all confirmed to be out of the tournament with injury and Roger Federer looks like he will miss the tournament to rest. With this in mind, Alexander Zverev has to be one of the favorites to secure back to back Masters Cup titles.