Tennis Tennis Imperious Zverev breezes into second round Alexander Zverev needed little more than an hour to dispatch Ricardas Berankis in the first round of the French Open. Joe Wright 27 May, 2018 23:01 IST Alexander Zverev was ruthless in his win over Ricardas Berankis - Getty Images Joe Wright 27 May, 2018 23:01 IST Alexander Zverev underlined his credentials as one of Rafael Nadal's main challengers at the French Open with a ruthless defeat of Ricardas Berankis in the first round. The German, a champion on the clay in Madrid and Munich already this year, saw off the world number 92 in straight sets, 6-1 6-1 6-2, on Suzanne-Lenglen court. Zverev was beaten in three tough sets by Nadal in last week's Internazionali d'italia final and showed just why he is among the favourites to challenge the Spaniard's Roland Garros supremacy on Sunday. The 21-year-old took an early break with a fearsome backhand down the line and never looked back, firing in 29 winners – including one sublime drop shot – to just 15 unforced errors. Berankis struggled to live with the speed of Zverev's serve and ground strokes, taking just two games and mustering four winners across the first two one-sided sets. The Lithuanian rallied in the third, a backhand return winner giving the crowd something to cheer at 1-4, but he could not make any further inroads on a Zverev serve that brought about 11 aces and no double faults. He did at least claim a fourth game off the number two seed before firing a simple backhand into the net to gift Zverev the win in just one hour and nine minutes. Zverev will face Jiri Vesely or Dusan Lajovic in round two. STATISTICAL BREAKDOWN Zverev [2] bt Berankis 6-1 6-1 6-2 WINNERS/UNFORCED ERRORS Zverev – 29/15 Berankis – 9/30 ACES/DOUBLE FAULTS Zverev – 11/0 Berankis – 2/2 BREAK POINTS WON Zverev – 7/12 Berankis – 0/0 FIRST SERVE PERCENTAGE Zverev – 59 Berankis – 65 PERCENTAGE OF POINTS WON ON FIRST/SECOND SERVE Zverev – 87/80 Berankis – 54/26 TOTAL POINTS Zverev – 81 Berankis – 38 Subscribe to our daily newsletter Get your daily dose of Sportstar with handpicked stories delivered right to your inbox! SUBSCRIBE Please enter a valid email address. Dugout videos