By Shrivathsa Sridhar
MELBOURNE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Last year's Australian Open runner-up, Alexander Zverev, stayed on track in his bid for an elusive maiden Grand Slam title, beating Francisco Cerundolo 6-2 6-4 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park on Sunday.
The 28-year-old German has lost all three Grand Slam title clashes he has contested, including last year's final to Jannik Sinner at Melbourne Park, and has flown under the radar this time as he seeks another opportunity.
"I'm very
happy with the match and the performance. Really happy to be back in the quarter-finals," Zverev said on court, dodging a question on whether he is playing his best tennis.
"I don't want to jinx it, I'll keep my mouth shut. But you have to play at a high level to reach the quarter-finals. I hope to continue the same way."
Dragged to four sets in each of his three previous rounds, the third seed made a blistering start to race through the first two sets on John Cain Arena and used all his experience to seal his most convincing win so far.
Cerundolo, the 16th seed, briefly threatened to make a match of it when he recovered a break late in the second set, but there was no stopping Zverev, who absorbed the pressure and pushed his opponent into a corner with plenty of variations in his game.
"I'm playing a bit more serve and volley, more drop shots," Zverev said. "I'm trying to do things that the two best players in the world are doing. I thought last year was terrible for me. I just hope this will be better.
"I'm as healthy as I've been in the last 12 months. I struggled a lot last year, I played through injuries. When I'm healthy, I feel better on court and everything comes along and becomes a bit easier.
"Hopefully I'll have three more tough matches and I hope I can stay that way."
With vociferous Argentine fans egging him on, Cerundolo came out swinging in the third set and produced some stunning volleys early on, but Zverev broke again for a 4-3 lead and powered into the last-eight of a major for the 16th time.
Zverev plays Daniil Medvedev or Learner Tien next.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Melbourne; Editing by William Mallard)
