French Open “Fighter before the Lord”: Zverev blossoms in crunch time
Alexander Zverev’s next opponent is Australian Alex De Minaur. Photo
© -/kyodo/dpa
Once again, the tennis star just managed to avoid an early French Open exit. Two statistics prove his enormous nerves of steel. Now he is looking ahead to the quarter-finals and asking himself: What is Djokovic’s knee doing?
Exhausted and tired, Alexander Zverev just wanted to go to bed. Nevertheless, the tennis star completed the nightly interview round after his latest four-hour feat of strength with a smile on his face.
“I’m much happier when I’m still in the tournament at three o’clock in the morning than when I’m out of the tournament at three o’clock in the afternoon,” said the 27-year-old, leaving the Stade Roland Garros around three hours before sunrise in Paris: “I’m just happy that I survived and am now in the quarterfinals.”
But Zverev had to fight extremely hard and suffer a lot at the French Open. As in the previous round against the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, the 27-year-old averted an early end to his title mission in the round of 16 with great comeback qualities after only five sets. Zverev wrestled the cheeky Dane Holger Rune down 4:6, 6:1, 5:7, 7:6 (7:2), 6:2 after being 1:2 sets behind and moved into the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament on clay for the sixth time. This also impressed tennis icon and Eurosport expert Boris Becker: “What a fighter!”
Now against De Minaur
He wants to “get back to the hotel as quickly as possible”, have a quick treatment there, go to sleep “and then hopefully I’ll be fresh tomorrow,” said Zverev. He will need a good regeneration, even though he is the favorite in the quarterfinals on Wednesday against the Australian Alex De Minaur. Zverev has won seven of the nine direct duels, and De Minaur also feels much more comfortable on the hard court.
But the world number eleven surprised everyone with his round of 16 victory over the much higher-rated Russian Daniil Medvedev. “Alex played an incredible match against Medvedev, showed really great tennis,” warned Zverev: “I expect it will be another difficult match.”
Zverev was asked in the media round whether he had the strength for three more five-set duels to win his longed-for first Grand Slam title. “I want to say yes,” the world number four replied with a smile. “But I hope that at some point I won’t win in five sets.”
The German number 1 has an outstanding record in this regard: Zverev won ten of eleven five-set matches in Paris. And another statistic proves his enormous quality in crunch time: his tiebreak record at the French Open is 22:2 – a phenomenal value!
“In those moments you just have to stay calm,” Zverev explained the secret of his success: “Go through the pain and just hold on.” Even the trial taking place in Berlin at the same time against him on charges of assaulting his then girlfriend does not seem to be disrupting Zverev’s focus.
However, he cannot shake off the fact that he spent a total of 8 hours and 25 minutes on the court in his two most recent matches with just a bit of regeneration. “You get that out of your body through the work you’ve done for years,” he explained. His ultimate reward for this is the “Coupe des Mousquetaires,” the trophy for the winner of the French Open. And the signs are good.
Even the world number one has to fight
He also has no need to worry about a possible semi-final against defending champion Novak Djokovic. The 24-time Grand Slam tournament winner was even closer to elimination than Zverev against the Argentine outsider Francisco Cerúndolo, but still managed to struggle into the quarter-finals with a 6:1, 5:7, 3:6, 7:5, 6:3. The Serb sustained a knee injury that initially made his further participation questionable.
He doesn’t know “whether I’ll be able to go on the court and play,” said the 37-year-old, looking ahead to Wednesday’s quarter-final against last year’s finalist Casper Ruud from Norway. “I hope so. Let’s wait and see what happens.” He has to see what the tests show and how it feels when the adrenaline and painkillers no longer work.
dpa
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