Toronto, Aug 1 (IANS) Alexander Zverev overcame a spirited effort from Matteo Arnaldi at the Canadian Open, where the top seed battled to a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 victory to claim his 500th tour-level match win.

The 28-year-old, now 37-14 on the season, is the first man born in 1990 or later to record 500 tour-level wins. Reaching the 500-win mark places Zverev in rarefied air alongside Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka as the only active players to achieve that feat. At 28, Zverev is the youngest among them, with his nearest peer in age, Cilic, seven years his senior.

Moreover, the German is the seventh fastest to have reached that milestone this century. Zverev is just the third German to reach 500 wins in the Open Era, joining the retired Boris Becker (713-214) and Tommy Haas (569-338) in an exclusive national club.

A seven-time ATP Masters 1000 champion, was not at his best in his third-round victory on Thursday, gifting Arnaldi a pair of set points in the opener — first with a routine backhand volley miss, then with a double fault at 4/5 in the tie-break. The 32nd seed seized his moment behind his own delivery, unloading a Serve +1 forehand to gain a one-set advantage, ATP reports.

The 2017 champion played into form as the match wore on, rarely allowing the Italian any looks on return. Across sets two and three, Zverev dropped just four points behind his first serve, according to the ATP Stats, to advance after two hours and 46 minutes.

Zverev next faces Argentine Francisco Cerundolo, who holds a perfect 3-0 ATP head-to-head record against the German, with two of those wins coming this season (Buenos Aires, Madrid). Cerundolo, seeded 14th, ousted countryman Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-4.

In other Toronto action, fifth seed Holger Rune marched past 29th seed Alexandre Muller 6-2, 6-4. Rune, a finalist at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells this year, will next meet 10th seed Daniil Medvedev or defending champion Alexei Popyrin.

–IANS

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