Compatriot Koepfer counters
Zverev is struggling through the opening match at the Australian Open
January 16, 2024, 1:29 p.m
As always, Alexander Zverev has big dreams at the Australian Open. Of all people, a German compatriot makes him suffer quite a bit right from the start. Dominik Koepfer “played fantastically,” said the German number one. Zverev, on the other hand, finds his own game “terrible”.
Alexander Zverev took off his sweat-soaked T-shirt and, relieved but exhausted, trudged to the winner’s interview: Germany’s tennis star defied a rebellious Dominik Koepfer and annoying insects at the start of his title mission at the Australian Open. Germany’s number one easily defeated his compatriot in Melbourne 4:6, 6:3, 7:6 (7:2), 6:3 and has to improve significantly if he is to dream of his first Grand Slam title.
“In the first rounds you have to find your rhythm first. I have to play better and I hope I’ll do that from tomorrow,” said Zverev in an on-court interview: “I’m always terrible in the first round. But also respect to Dominik , he played fantastically.”
In the warm and humid conditions, the Olympic champion showed an overall poor performance and made many avoidable mistakes. Zverev got off to a very weak start in the Margaret Court Arena. Instead of sixth in the world rankings, Koepfer dictated the events. He repeatedly put Zverev in trouble with his powerful groundstrokes. The dissatisfaction was clearly noticeable. The 26-year-old conceded an early break, looked quarreling towards his box and gave up the first set after just 37 minutes.
Becker: “Today wasn’t about beauty prizes”
In the second round, Koepfer had a small phase of weakness. Zverev used this to break to 4:2 and equalized the set after 1:22 hours. But that didn’t give him security. The Hamburg native also found it very difficult in the evening when the temperatures were still mid-summer. With the score at 4:5, Zverev even had to fend off two set points before he won the round in the tiebreak after 2:30 hours.
Now Zverev finally had the game under control, didn’t let insects bother him and scored his second match point after 3:12 hours. In the second round, Zverev will face Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein.
Zverev started the year strongly and took a good feeling with him to Melbourne from his triumph at the United Cup. As number six in the world, the Hamburg native is one of the favorites at the first major tournament of the year. His best result in Melbourne is reaching the semi-finals in 2020. “I would call that a work victory. But today it wasn’t about a beauty prize, it was about getting into the second round,” said Boris Becker as a TV expert at Eurosport.
Of the German tennis professionals, only Jan-Lennard Struff had secured a ticket for the second round before Zverev. Daniel Altmaier, Yannick Hanfmann and Maximilian Marterer failed at their opening hurdles.