Stat of the Day: Zverev up to 9 wins in a row in Germany

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World No. 6 Alexander Zverev extended his winning streak in Germany to nine matches in a row on Wednesday, beating Ricardas Berankis, 6-2, 6-4, in his opening match at the ATP 250 in Munich.

He’ll try to make it 10 in a row on home soil against Ilya Ivashka in the quarterfinals on Friday.

“I haven’t played much tennis the past few weeks, so I know I’ll need to improve for the next match,” said Zverev, who’ll be facing No. 107-ranked Ivashka for the first time. “I’ve had success in the past and I feel good here. I’ve played well in the practice and hopefully I can do better on the match court.”

The first eight wins in Zverev’s nine-match winning streak in Germany came last fall, when he won ATP 250 titles in back-to-back weeks in Cologne, on indoor hard courts. Among the notable players he beat in those two weeks were Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jannik Sinner and Diego Schwartzman.

Zverev has won four of his 14 career ATP titles in Germany—in addition to the two in Cologne last fall, he’s won Munich twice, too, in 2017 and 2018. He’s also reached another two finals in Germany, both in Halle, in 2016 (finishing runner-up to Florian Mayer) and 2017 (finishing runner-up to Roger Federer).