Zverev swallows fly but reaches Paris quarters as Griekspoor quits
German tennis player Alexander Zverev plays a backhand return to Netherlands' Tallon Griekspoor during their men's singles tennis match on day 9 of the French Open tennis tournament on Court Suzanne-Lenglen at the Roland-Garros Complex. Julien De Rosa/AFP/dpa
German tennis star Alexander Zverev recovered from an early wobble and swallowing a fly to glide into the quarter-finals of the French Open after Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor quit on Monday.
The number three seed was leading 6-4, 3-0 when his opponent gave up due to an apparent abdomen injury.
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Zverev, who is yet to win a grand slam singles title and lost the Paris final last year to Carlos Alcaraz, could face men's grand slam record champion Novak Djokovic in the last eight and world number one Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals.
"I think from here I have the toughest draw it is possible to imagine," he told reporters. "I look forward to taking on the big names and will try everything to win the next three matches."
The German was broken in his first service game after a thrilling rally and quickly found himself 3-0 down. But Zverev hit back with a break of his own on the Roland Garros red dust and was suddenly level at 3-3.
He then broke Griekspoor's service again on Court Suzanne Lenglen as the 28-year-old rattled off five games in a row to take control.
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The German broke again twice at the start of the second set as the world number 35 lost his way.
Zverev became so dominant that even a coughing fit after swallowing a fly when about to serve failed to slow him down. After a gulp of water from his chair, Zverev returned to blast an ace.
"It doesn't taste so good, but maybe he should do it more often if it's followed by an ace," pundit Boris Becker said on Eurosport.
Griekspoor then decided to retire from the contest, having also been beaten by Zverev on the Paris clay last year.
"Unfortunately, this morning and in the warmup with the last couple of serves that I hit, I pulled my abdominal, which made me not serve full and not able to compete the way I would like," Griekspoor said.
"It was probably one of the biggest matches of my life against an opponent that I like to play on a beautiful court. So I just wanted to give it a shot, but I realized pretty early that it was not going to be my day."
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