Saturday 20th November 2021
Biggest victory since the Olympics
Zverev wrestles Djokovic impressively
Alexander Zverev is in the final of the ATP Finals. The best German tennis player defeated the great dominator Novak Djokovic in an almost eternal tennis thriller. This means that a successful season is very close to the ultimate culmination.
As at the Olympics, Alexander Zverev won against Novak Djokovic and can finish his turbulent season with a prestigious title in his last tennis game of the year. With the 7: 6 (7: 4), 4: 6, 6: 3, the Olympic champion moved into the final at the season finale in Turin.
Thanks to his best performance in this tournament in a high-class and gripping match, the 24-year-old from Hamburg repeated his coup from the Tokyo Summer Games, where he also triumphed in the round of the top four against the world number one. Zverev denies the final act of his successful year on Sunday (5 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) against the Russian defending champion Daniil Medvedev, who won 6: 4, 6: 2 against the Norwegian outsider Casper Ruud. Zverev had just lost to the US Open winner in the preliminary round in the tie-break of the third set and received his fifth loss in a row.
“It was a fantastic match. We played five times this year, each time it was a fight,” said Zverev, demanding respect for Djokovic and already looking at the final and his opponent. “I lost to him 8-6 in the tie-break of the third set. I’ll try my best. I think it’s a great endgame,” said the happy finalist.
Three years ago, the North German won the title in the final against Djokovic at the ATP Finals – back then in London. At the Turin premiere of the event, Zverev showed a remarkable performance against the favored veteran in front of a good 7,000 spectators – due to the corona pandemic, capacity was limited. In the atmospherically illuminated hall, Germany’s best tennis player could once again rely on his serve, which often led to a point win even against the excellent return player Djokovic.
“We will suffer more”
“There will be a lot of longer rallies, we will run more, we will suffer more,” said Zverev and thus right compared to the preliminary round against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz. From his point of view, that was the case especially at 4: 5: The German number one had problems with his own serve for the first time and had to fend off a set ball from the top favorite. But Zverev also fought strongly in the longer rallies against the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon winners. Although he could not use his only two break opportunities in the following service game of the Serb. And the consequence was the tiebreak in sentence one. But Zverev earned this with a courageous game.
After winning the first round, Zverev was on his side again early on when Djokovic pulled on a fresh T-shirt: As if he wanted to show the 34-year-old that he was ready to defeat him. Mentally, Zverev hardly seemed to slow down in the past few weeks, also strengthened by his new girlfriend Sophia Thomalla. But to 4: 5, Zverev gave up his serve for the first time. He then fought four set balls successfully, with the fifth he was powerless.
At the US Open in New York in September, Zverev had to admit defeat to the tennis record collector in five sets. This time there could be a maximum of three rounds. The 18-time tournament winner from Hamburg took off with the game win to 3-1 on serve by Djokovic and did not let the opponent come back. “The season has been amazing so far,” said Zverev about three weeks ago in Vienna, where he won his fifth tournament in 2021. The gold medal in summer was the emotional climax. The victory in Japan had given it a boost.