The survivor Altmaier!!

The German saved several match points against Zhang in a very frustrating match for him before finally finding the solution and getting through it miraculously.

Altmaier took some time to find the solution against Zhang, but you can’t blame him for having a bad attitude for once. He’s already gone through several periods where his attitude was borderline scandalous, but this time you could immediately feel he was very motivated and really invested in this tournament, which clearly seemed to mean a lot to him. Even with his back against the wall and struggling, facing an inspired Zhang who was largely dominating him, he fought and turned the match around before closing it out. I think this kind of match can really help him get his smile back and, why not, rack up a few wins afterwards. One thing’s for sure: now he’s up against Zverev and he literally has nothing left to lose. He can even approach this match mentally like a lucky loser given how far he’s come back.

As for Zverev, I have to admit I’m quite skeptical about his chances in this Rome tournament. For me, it’s already a mistake for him to even be playing here. He’s playing a lot and just made a final in Madrid. He also has to play Hamburg next week, which is pretty crazy. You have to remember that after that, Roland-Garros is waiting for him, and he’ll be the number 2 seed. In other words, this might be his best chance to win a Grand Slam title. And the guy prefers to chain tournaments instead of managing his schedule intelligently.

I’m reserving judgment for this week: even if he’s already won this tournament twice, he’s going to have to get going and build up his level. Seeing him play a perfect match against a guy who’s completely crazy in his head and capable of pulling off upsets after coming within a whisker of losing to Zhang is a good reason to tone things down a bit.