MELBOURNE, Jan 27 — Germany’s Alexander Zverev ended the hot streak of his close friend Andrey Rublev of Russia to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time today.
The seventh seed broke once in each set for a clinical 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win in just 1hr 37mins to go into a match-up with Stan Wawrinka, the powerful Swiss who beat Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
Zverev retains his 100 per cent record over Rublev, who came into the match on a 15-match winning run including titles in Doha and Adelaide earlier this month.
After a long embrace at the net, Zverev, 22, said: “I’ve known him since we were 10 years old. I just reminded him how far we got together.
“A lot of young kids would dream about playing the fourth round of a Grand Slam against one of his closest friends. I just told him we’re going to play a lot of great matches.”
It was a one-sided win for Zverev, who faced no break points as he reached his first quarter-final in five visits to Melbourne — equalling his best Grand Slam result, achieved last year at Roland Garros. — AFP
