Federer beaten by Zverev

Roger Federer’s Australian Open build-up suffered an early setback as he lost to teenager Alexander Zverev at the Hopman Cup in Perth.

Federer showed plenty of the class which has won him a record 17 Grand Slams, but couldn’t quite hold off the bold 19-year-old German.

Federer, 35, was left to rue his failure to serve out the first set when leading 5-3 and although he hit back in the next, two booming first serves from Zverev, the first teenager to make the top 20 since Novak Djokovic in 2006, closed out the match 7-6 (7-1) 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-4) in front of a record Perth tennis crowd in two hours and 30 minutes.

It was Zverev’s second straight win over the Swiss champ, having beaten him in Halle last June, and the result also mirrored that of an unofficial match on the practice court on New Year’s Eve.

Despite the result, Switzerland kept their hopes of reaching Saturday’s final alive with a 2-1 win over Germany – Belinda Bencic beating Andrea Petkovic in the women’s …

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