#NextGen star Alexander Zverev extended his win streak to seven matches on Wednesday at the China Open by storming into the quarter-finals over Jack Sock, 6-4, 6-2.
"I thought I served very well, played very aggressively and returned pretty good," said Zverev. "I had to take away his very good forehand from the baseline and being a break up each set gave me a little bit of confidence."
Next up for Zverev is fifth seed David Ferrer, who defeated Fabio Fognini earlier in the day, 6-3, 6-4. Ferrer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 1-0, but that win came over two years ago in Hamburg and Zverev is a much improved player since then.
“He beat me quite easily when I was 17,” said Zverev. “It was on clay, so hopefully this is a bit of a different match.”
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Zverev held the lead throughout the entire match. He saved the lone break point against him in each set and broke Sock three times throughout the contest. The 19-year-old German has been in top form this week after upsetting fourth seed and World No. 10 Dominic Thiem on Wednesday.
The #NextGen star won his first ATP World Tour title last month at the St. Petersburg Open. He became the first player to defeat Top 10 opponents in the semi-finals (No. 9 Tomas Berdych) and final (No. 3 Stan Wawrinka) for their maiden title since Albert Portas achieved the feat in Hamburg in 2001.
Having started the year at No. 83 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Zverev has soared to his current standing at No. 24. He is less than 100 points away from the Top 20 and has nothing to defend for the rest of the year, making him a strong contender to achieve that milestone.