Australian Open: Zverev passes Federer in the rankings. Pouille prevails

. Standing as one of the lowest-ranked players in the draw together with Alexei Popyrin, Bolt had to survive four match points against Gilles Simon two days ago and he had nothing left in the tank to challenger the German, losing 45% of the points in his games and giving serve away six times from 12 opportunities Zverev created.

Sascha fired 14 aces and had to drop serve only once from six chances given to Bolt, controlling the pace from start to finish with 29 winners and 26 unforced errors. A forehand winner pushed the ATP Finals champion in front already in the opening game before Bolt came back with a break in game six when he forced an error from Sascha.

The youngster moved ahead in the very next game with a backhand down the line winner before sealing the set with a third break in game nine for a 6-3. Alex stayed in touch in the first half of the second set before spraying a forehand error in the eighth game to push Zverev 5-3 up, wasting a break point in the next game to fall two sets to love down.

Sascha struggled a bit on his serve in the third set although he managed to save all break points and keep the pressure on Alex, breaking him twice before holding at love with a service winner at 5-2 for the place in the last 16.

The youngster gave his best to perform a comeback, firing as many aces as Pouille and producing similar performances on the first serve and also the same number of winners. Still, the Frenchman played better on the second serve and he made a fewer number of unforced errors, scoring three breaks of serve in a mighty close encounter to avoid an upset and bring the match home after solid tennis in the decider.

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