A reborn Carreno meets Zverev in Cincinnati | ATP Tour

Cincinnati

A reborn Carreño meets Zverev in Cincinnati

The Spaniard will face Alexander Zverev in the round of 16

August 15, 2024

Pablo Carreño wants to earn his return to the ATP Tour. At 33, the Spaniard faces one of the most challenging moments of his career, trying to regain a place among the strongest after an injury that completely turned his professional life upside down. Tendinitis in his right elbow stopped him for a year and a half, an eternity on a circuit that waits for no one. In the case of the Asturian, the toll needs no introduction: it took him out of the top 500 positions on the circuit.

The Spaniard recorded a comforting victory in Cincinnati on Thursday, defeating Australian Max Purcell 6-3, 6-3 to reach the third round of the tournament. After stringing together victories in an ATP Masters 1000 event, something he had not achieved in the last two seasons, Carreño Busta was smiling again with a certainty in his hands. The results are starting to come in one of the circuit’s biggest stages, a feeling he had practically forgotten.

Carreno competes this week at the Lindner Family Tennis Center using his protected ranking, extending the winning momentum on the American tour after advancing a round last week in Montreal. The Spaniard debuted in Ohio with one of the strongest results of the tournament, signing his first Top 15 victory in the last two years against the American Sebastian Korda, recent champion of Washington.

The result was an oasis on an eternal path, a test of faith for a player who wants to continue writing a professional career on his own terms.

Uncertainty has been a constant companion for the Spaniard, who attempted a comeback on the ATP Challenger Tour at the end of the 2023 season. Caution, however, forced Carreño Busta to stay off the court until he was fully recovered. In short, two matches between February 2023 and May 2024 have been the penance for a player accustomed to earning a place among the best in the locker room.

Now, the Cincinnati Open offers Carreno Busta a chance to test his current form. The Spaniard will play in the round of 16 against former champion Alexander Zverev, who won 6-3, 6-2 over Karen Khachanov, facing his first match against a Top 5 player in the world in the last two seasons.

Zverev leads the Lexus ATP Head2Head series 3-0, a rivalry with strong memories for both on American soil. In the 2020 season, the German captured an epic duel in the penultimate round of the US Open on the way to his first Grand Slam final, defeating the Spaniard after coming from two sets down under the floodlights of Flushing Meadows.

Did you know…?
Pablo Carreño Busta is one of three active players with an ATP Masters 1000 title in their professional career, alongside Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard won the most important trophy of his career at the Omnium Banque Nationale presented by Rogers in Montreal in the 2022 season, lifting the seventh and most recent trophy of his sporting career.