After a stutter start in the US Open semi-finals: Alexander Zverev wrestles Coric
The primal scream after the match ball was probably heard as far as Manhattan: After a stuttering start, many mistakes and a brilliant performance, Alexander Zverev reached the semifinals of the US Open for the first time in his career.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Sep 08, 2020, 11:18 pm
Germany's top player, seeded at number five, beat Croatian Borna Coric after more than three hours of energy performance with 1: 6, 7: 6 (7: 5), 7: 6 (7: 1), 6: 3 and is now waiting the Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta or the Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
Zverev started surprisingly cautious and far too passive in the fourth Grand Slam quarter-finals of his career. Coric, number 27 on the seeding list, played exactly the tennis that Zverev doesn't like: He forced his opponent into long rallies and cleverly took the pace out of the game.
Zverev reacted as Coric had hoped. The 23-year-old made mistake after mistake, he also seemed strangely unemotional and fell far behind the baseline. "The longer the rally, the worse it is for Sascha", stated Eurosport expert Boris Becker and criticized Zverev's "way of playing too passive".
And one more thing did not fit into Zverev's game: The serve, especially the first one, a sure guarantee of success in the last few games, largely left the Hamburger in the lurch. With three double errors in the fourth game of the first set, Zverev conceded the first break to 1: 3, after 24 minutes the first set was 6: 1 at Coric.
In the fifth game of the second round, Zverev showed emotions for the first time. He quarreled with chair referee Eva Asderaki because she had allegedly not awarded him a correct point gain.
A little later, Zverev got upset that Coric left the place twice in one sentence to change his sweaty clothes. "You can do that here," he called to Coric. His answer: "I also had to change my pants." Becker agreed with Zverev: "I would go nuts."
Despite all the obstacles, Zverev managed to balance the sentences. After 1:40 hours he made the point for 7: 5 in the tie-break. "That was so important," said Becker, but he stuck to his criticism: "He's still playing too passively, especially on Coric's second serve he has to go harder."
The third set lasted an hour, the tie-break went again, but this time Zverev made it much less exciting with the 7: 1 to 2: 1 set lead. In the third round, Zverev saw himself more on the defensive, in the fifth game he had to fend off two breakballs, but then in turn got the decisive break to 5: 3.