Top seed Zverev bundled out by Paul in rain-hit Cincinnati upset

CINCINNATI, Ohio: Tommy Paul saved a match point on the way to a 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 upset of top seed Alexander Zverev on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.
The match was interrupted for 90 minutes in the seventh game of the second set by rain and had two more five-minute pauses as drops were dried from the court.
French Open champion Zverev had a chance to close out a victory at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker but stuffed a volley into the net.
The German again gained an edge in the deciding set with a break for 4-2, but Paul broke back in the next game and again for a 5-4 lead.
He served out the victory with confidence for his third win over Zverev in their last four meetings.
“I’m not sure how I did it,” Paul said. “I put some returns in, he gave me some looks at second serves and he threw in a few doubles (faults).

That always helps a ton.
“I went after the ball a bit more, I was having fun out there. I hope I can keep building on this and peak at the US Open.”
Paul next faces Roland Garros runner-up Flavio Cobolli, who labored two and a half hours to engineer a turnaround against red-hot Spaniard Rafael Jodar 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Cobolli has won all three of his matches in Cincinnati in three sets.
The durable Italian reached his second Masters-level quarter-final of the season after Madrid, and he prevented 19-year-old Jodar from reaching an eighth quarter-final in nine events.
“At the end of the second set and start of the third I told myself to believe, try on every point,” Cobolli said.

“I knew I had a chance.
“Rafa has had an unbelievable season but maybe he was a bit tired. At the end I deserved to win as I was fresher than him.
“I pushed to my limit to get through.