French Open winner Zverev battles past Blockx to reach Wimbledon second round

[p]The German, who was beaten in round one last year, won [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/blockx-a-xll0TzGG/zverev-a-dGbUhw9m/?mid=GKukMMct"]6-4, 6-7(8), 7-6(5), 7-6 (7)[/a] on Centre Court and will next face France's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/royer-valentin/IFGPWCuI/"]Valentin Royer[/a].[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/zverev-alexander/dGbUhw9m/"]Zverev[/a] was in danger of becoming the first reigning men's Roland Garros champion to go out in the first round at the All England Club since [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/nadal-rafael/xUwlUnRK/"]Rafael Nadal[/a] in 2013 at several points in the match.[/p][p]But the 29-year-old dug deep to beat [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/blockx-alexander/xll0TzGG/"]Blockx[/a] for the third time in as many meetings this year.[/p][p][b]Zverev clinched his long-awaited maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open earlier this month after several near-misses.[/b][/p][p]He has never enjoyed a deep run at Wimbledon, though, failing to get past the last 16 in nine previous appearances.[/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="646b9c8c-39a3-434d-8dd6-7b50af6e3cb6" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="072d914a-2845-407f-ad49-0b93afb0d09a" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]The second seed needed just 30 minutes to take the first set, courtesy of the only break in the ninth game.[/p][p]Blockx showed his mettle in a second-set tie-break, saving a set point and then levelling the match when Zverev double-faulted.[/p][p]But a couple of double-faults in the third-set breaker proved costly for the 21-year-old, and Zverev wrapped up victory in the next set in another tie-break.[/p][embed guid="9eda5c70-bd9a-468d-9ca1-7d316a0f9a50" url="https://x.com/Wimbledon/status/2072022062189658117" social-type="twitter" /][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/tennis/atp-singles/wimbledon/"]Follow the men's side at Wimbledon here.[/a][/b][/p]