It was a weird day of tennis for fans in Mexico as two back-to-back marathon matches were on display at the ATP Acapulco Open. The first one involved Grigor Dimitrov and American youngster Stefan Kozlov. The second match was between Alexander Zverev and Jensen Brooksby.

Zverev, who entered Acapulco as the defending champion, appeared to be in a bit of fix earlier in the 2022 ATP season as his performances didn’t live up to the expectations. For a while, the German star was touted to be a Grand Slam champion and the pressure of not performing in majors got to him in Australia as he bowed out to Denis Shapovalov in the quarters.

Alexander Zverev becomes part of ATP history in opening round match at ATP Acapulco

Coming to the match against Brooksby today in Acapulco, it was a high-quality contest where Zverev won the first set. Just when things appeared to run smoothly for the German, Brooksby decided to tight things out as he stepped up his game and took the second set to a tie-breaker.

The rising American star edged past Alexander Zverev in the breaker and forced a deciding third set. Owing to a marathon match before involving Dimitrov and Kozlov, it was well past midnight in Mexico as people in the stands started to move out one after the other.

This match-up registered an unusual history on ATP tour by becoming the latest ever finish to a men’s singles match. Previously, the record was held by Lleyton Hewitt and Marcus Baghdatis at 2008 Australian Open.

However, the duo continued to play with same intensity in the first few games of the third before Brooksby lost his serve as it was enough for the German to seal a three-set victory early in the morning.

During the match, another incident took place as Alexander Zverev could be seen asking for some food from his stands in order to get the energy going.

“Do you have half a chicken out there?”, the German asked his box in the middle of the match.

“There it goes. But don’t take it all in now,” comes the suggestion from his team.

After the match, the German kept the interview brief as he felt happy to be a part of ATP history.

“I’m happy to be part of history. It was an incredible battle and it was an incredible match.”

In every sense, it was a great battle from Sascha Zverev as he moves one step further in his title defense at Acapulco.

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