MELBOURNE: Seventh seed Alexander Zverev credited a stress-free life off court for his strong run at the Australian Open after marching into the fourth round with a 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco on Saturday. Zverev arrived in Melbourne lacking confidence after losing all three of his singles matches at the inaugural ATP Cup to Australia’s Alex de Minaur, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and Canada’s Denis Shapovalov. His serve has always been one of his biggest weapons but it looked in complete disarray as the German totalled 31 double-faults during the three defeats. But the 22-year-old has bounced back splendidly at the year’s first Grand Slam, where he has not lost a set as he advanced to the fourth round for the second straight time. Zverev was once considered one of the leading ‘Next Gen’ contenders to break the Grand Slam hegemony of Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer who have shared the last 12 majors between them. But the German, who beat Federer and Djokovic on his way to the 2018 ATP Finals title, fell off the radar as he failed to get past the quarter-finals at the majors.