Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images

Alexander Zverev was able to fight back to beat Ben Shelton in his opening match at the ATP Finals.

Zverev is a two-time former ATP Finals champion and is making his eighth appearance at the tournament this year.

However, there have been some doubts about the world number three coming into the event, with Zverev struggling physically at the Paris Masters.

The German faced a tough opening match against Shelton, who has had the best year of his career, and looked set to take the match into a deciding set.

Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images

Alexander Zverev says what he thought about the shot Ben Shelton hit in the tie-break

Zverev had beaten Shelton in all four of their previous meetings, and looked to be heading that way again after winning the first set.

With the second set going into a tie-break, Shelton took a 4-0 lead and also had three set points from 6-3 up.

However, Zverev was able to recover this deficit to beat Shelton, 6-3 7-6(6), and continue his dominant record against the American.

When reflecting on the match in the post-match interview, Zverev was full of praise for Shelton’s game style and particularly highlighted a passing shot he hit in the tie-break that enabled him to take such a significant lead.

“Well I mean he’s an unbelievably aggressive player, probably the most aggressive in the world,” Zverev said about Shelton. “You know, the tie-break he started amazing and yes I missed maybe one or two first serves, the passing shot he hit was ridiculous.

“I felt that I had to control the things that I could control and I was doing them well, you know at the end of the day when the points are on his serve they are always in his control and when I get the return back I feel like I’m in the rally and then I feel like I can do something. I did that well at the end of the tie-break so I’m super happy I got the win.”

Zverev got 81% of his first serves in play, compared to Shelton’s 80%, and won 84% of his points when hitting his first serve.

This is something Zverev explained was a big focus of his, as he knew Shelton would be an even greater threat on the second serve return.

“Yeah I knew against him I had to have a very high first serve percentage, because again he is so aggressive on the second serves,” added Zverev.

“Even though I feel like I am someone who can hit the second serve quite fast, but the returns are coming back even faster. I knew that was going to be one of the key factors today, and generally again I’m just very happy with this win.”

Ben Shelton told he would probably have lost to Alexander Zverev even if he won the tie-break

The match appeared to be heading to a decider, which would seemingly be anyone’s to win, but former British tennis player turned Sky Sports commentator Naomi Cavaday does not seem to think this way.

When analyzing the match, Cavaday claimed that she thought Zverev would have won regardless with the way that he was playing, and spoke about what she thought Shelton’s downfall was.

“The level that Zverev has played there, okay he got off to a rocky start at the beginning of the tie-break,” began Cavaday. “But all the way through the match the serving was out of this world, even with the way that he was playing I still think he would have been the favourite to win the match.

“But it was right there for Shelton, oh it’s so tough. He got himself in a tie-break, got himself in a winning position and it all just fell apart. It was just error after error, he just got completely lost.

“Zverev just went into lockdown and that final point he wasn’t going to miss, we knew that, just set up camp. What a great effort from him.”

All is not lost for Shelton though, with the round-robin format giving him two more chances to get some points on the board and give him a chance to qualify for the semifinals.

However, the two other players in Shelton and Zverev’s group are none other than Jannik Sinner and the in-form Felix Auger-Aliassime.