For the first time in his career, Alexander Zverev is through to the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The No.4 seed got there via a largely trouble-free 6-3 6-3 6-2 victory over local wildcard Alex Bolt.
The South Australian lefty had enjoyed a breakout tournament, advancing further at a Grand Slam than he ever had before. Suddenly, he was appearing at Rod Laver Arena under lights – also a career-first – on Saturday night.
In spurts, the 155th-ranked Bolt troubled Zverev, with his big first serve, power off the ground and net-rushing instincts keeping the match competitive.
But the gulf between the two on this occasion came in the consistency department. And Zverev had this attribute in spades over his opponent.
There was to be no lapse from two sets up this time, as was the case in his second-round struggle against Jeremy Chardy. Or no fading to a five-set third-round defeat, as was the case against Hyeon Chung and Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
This time, a one-hour, 52-minute victory sent Zverev through to a fourth-round meeting with 16th seed Milos Raonic.
"He's got a big serve, big forehand and you've gotta take care a little bit of weight from a lefty; you've got to return well, thought I did that,” Zverev noted.
“Obviously play my game – I'm a tall guy, aggressive myself, I try to push the opponents around a little bit and it all worked out well today.”
If the ranking differential did not indicate this already, the first sign for Bolt this match would be a constantly uphill battle came in the first game. Forced onto the run by a searing Zverev forehand, he couldn’t reach it, and tumbled stretching for it, suffering a nasty-looking fall.
That winner saw Zverev break immediately, and two games later, Bolt required a visit from the trainer to patch up his grazed knee.
Bolt’s movement, thankfully, wasn’t compromised, and a few games later he broke back for 3-3, igniting the crowd with his pumped-up celebration. Yet Zverev quietened the stadium quickly, dominating rallies with the weight, depth and angles of his groundstrokes and breaking twice within the next three games to snare the first set.
The second set was tight until, in the eighth game, three forehand errors from Bolt handed the German another break, which he converted to move ahead two sets to love.
That game encapsulated the match. Bolt was able to hang with Zverev in many rallies and wasn’t especially deficient in the power stakes, but you always got a sense his game was more likely to break down – especially in the longer rallies.
The stats reflected this, with Bolt committing 38 unforced errors; 12 more than Zverev.
In the third set, Zverev continued to accrue games, despite the fact Bolt earned five break points which, if converted, would have kept the scoreline tighter.
Several of those came in a lengthy sixth game, but Zverev finally held after five deuces, and, two games later, served out the match comfortably.
A win in the fourth round over Raonic would send him though to a major quarterfinal for just the second time ever.