In Melbourne, the Australian Open saw sixth seed Alexander Zverev narrowly escape defeat on Thursday. The former semi-finalist managed to defeat Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein with a score of 7-5 3-6 4-6 7-6(5) 7-6(7) to advance to the third round.
Due to rain, the match had to be completed under the roof on John Cain Arena. Zverev found himself in trouble as Klein, ranked 163 in the world, applied pressure after losing the first set and went on to win the next two.
The 25-year-old Slovak, whose only previous Grand Slam main draw appearance was at Wimbledon in 2022, came close to achieving his first career top-10 win. However, he missed the opportunity to break at 4-4 in the fourth set.
Zverev managed to level the contest as Klein lost a 3-1 lead in the tie-break. The 26-year-old German then exchanged breaks with his opponent early in the final set before coming out on top in a tie-break to secure the victory.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
