Prior to beating Zverev, Goffin came from a set down to defeat both Marcos Giron and No. 15 seed Lorenzo Musetti, having lost the opening set of those matches 6-1. Against this year’s Roland Garros finalist, Goffin was in a different place. He led for much of the opening set, and won four of its last five games.
He later staved off a decider by some steely play late in the second. From 4-2 up, he lost the next three games, and denied Zverev a set point serving at 4-5, before capturing the final three games of the match.
“I built the confidence from the beginning of the tournament,” Goffin said. “Match after match, I’ve been playing better and better. I just came on the court and just tried to play my best tennis, stick to the plan that we had with my coach, and it worked.
“Even though he came back with some good rallies, I just tried to stay positive because I was on the right way to winning the match. It paid off in the end with a really good service game to finish, so I am really happy with the win.”
