Saturday June 12th 2021
“If someone speaks to me …”
Frustrated Zverev struggles with Paris-Aus
Even in the tenth attempt at a Grand Slam tournament, Zverev has no luck against a top ten player: In the semifinals of the French Open, he sometimes shows world-class level against the Greek Tsitsipas, but that doesn’t interest the 24-year-old after the match more.
After his bitter semi-final, Alexander Zverev bravely waved to the audience again, then left the Center Court in Paris in deep frustration. Despite an impressive energy output, Germany’s best tennis player narrowly missed the final at the French Open. Zverev lost in the semifinals against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in a dramatic match 3: 6, 3: 6, 6: 4, 6: 4, 3: 6 and thus has to wait for his first title in one of the four most important tournaments.
“If someone speaks to me for the next three days, I’ll go away. I probably won’t talk much about it,” said the German top player a few minutes after his dream of his first Grand Slam triumph at the French Open had again burst. Regardless of his strong performance, only frustration prevailed at Zverev.
“I’m no longer at a level where good matches are enough for me. Was it a good match? Yes. But at the end of the day I’ll fly home tomorrow. So there is nothing positive today,” said the 24-year-old, deeply disappointed. “I’m not interested in semifinals anymore. That may sound arrogant, but it shouldn’t. I didn’t win the tournament, that’s the only thing that matters.”
Bad luck on the tenth attempt
Zverev was initially unable to build on his previously strong performances at the Stade Roland Garros. Born in Hamburg, he made a lot of easy mistakes at the beginning, but then improved and showed a big fighter’s heart. Zverev made up for a two-sentence deficit, but in the end he was a little lacking in luck. However, he was also self-critical: “I only started playing tennis well in the third set. You can’t do that in a Grand Slam semi-final against such a strong opponent.”
Tsitsipas converted his fifth match point after 3:37 hours and is in a Grand Slam final for the first time. This means that Zverev cannot beat the top 10 players in Grand Slams. Even on the tenth attempt it didn’t work. It could have been the first time since Michael Stich 25 years ago that a German has made it to the final of the French Open.
Zverev got off to a bad start and immediately gave up his serve. Tsitsipas quickly moved away to 3-0 and from then on determined the action. After just 38 minutes, the Greek got the first set. Overall, the German number one did not seem as powerful and dynamic as in the previous laps and moved significantly worse.
Frustration turned into world class tennis
But in the second set, Zverev initially increased and now took the lead with a break. It was 3-0 for the native of Hamburg, but then suddenly he didn’t succeed. Tsitsipas made six games in a row and also took the second set. “If he continues to play like this, the game will be over in half an hour,” said tennis legend Boris Becker after losing the second set as a TV expert at Eurosport.
And Zverev quarreled with himself, repeatedly looking up at his father and trainer Alexander Senior in the stands. But he didn’t give up. At the beginning of the third set, the world number sixth made an early break again, which he was able to maintain this time. Zverev was now much more emotional than in the first two sentences. When the referee overruled a decision by the linesman when the score was 5: 3, Zverev discussed for minutes with the referee and even the head referee.
The 24-year-old has now turned the frustration into world-class tennis. A little later, Zverev got the third set and thus initiated the turnaround. In the fourth round, too, he immediately took the service from the Greek. The German number one now determined the event in an astonishing way. Tsitsipas played no worse than in the first two sets, but Zverev has now raised the level to another level and managed to equalize the set after 2:50 hours.
The momentum now spoke for Zverev. But then at the beginning of the fifth movement he allowed himself a small phase of weakness that Tsitsipas took advantage of. First Zverev missed three breakballs in the opening game of the fifth set, then he lost his serve a little later. Zverev fought on and fought off four match points when the score was 2: 5, but in the end it was not enough.
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