Alexander Zverev's memorable failure: "I have to live with it"
Alexander Zverev had all the trump cards in hand for his first Grand Slam title - but at the end of a highly dramatic game in the fifth set, Dominic Thiem triumphed.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Sep 14, 2020, 12:25 pm
It was already approaching midnight in New York when Alexander Zverev appeared on Sunday for his very last US Open date. Zverev was sitting in a TV studio, he was looking at a video screen, some reporters from all over the world were connected to him. He still looked very tired, very exhausted, his eyes were blank, expressionless, immobile. The loser of the great final drama didn't have much more to say, in fact everything had long been discussed and answered on Center Court. “I have to live with it,” said Zverev, “but it's very bitter. I was so close to victory. "
At the moment he couldn't give him any consolation, which is why he didn't turn on his cell phone: “I didn't want to read all the I'm sorry messages.” A few moments later, shortly before leaving, he said: “From with all the speeches it doesn't get any better. "
Thiem is sure that Zverev will win a Grand Slam tournament
It was just as brutal as always: at the end of a two-week Grand Slam spectacle there is exactly one winner, one champion. And there are 127 losers, and whoever loses last is the worst off. Especially when he loses like Zverev. When he sees victory again and again and again, the greatest moment of his life - and when all he has to do is watch his opponent lift the trophy up at the award ceremony. There was no shortage of praise, recognition, sympathy, consolation and encouragement for Zverev after the almost unbelievable 6: 2, 6: 4, 4: 6, 3: 6, 6: 7 (6) failure against his friend Dominic Thiem - and yet there was just the big question of how Zverev would put away this knockout in the very last few meters, how he digested this traumatic experience.
Thiem was the first to give Zverev courage, he said at the award ceremony that “Sascha will make his family proud at some point if he will definitely win a Grand Slam,” and Zverev himself said, “there will soon be another chance.” But there were nothing but fine words, the look into a future that nobody knows what it will look like for the young German.
Behind the 23-year-old giant was a match, a defeat, a superaltive showdown that you won't soon forget. Zverev versus Thiem, this five-sentence thriller with a tie-break ending and no happy ending for the native of Hamburg - it was a duel that was even crazier, more memorable and more disturbing than this whole ghost Grand Slam itself. He had thousands of games already seen, said at the end of the fifth act from a distance, from a Munich television studio, tennis chancellor Boris Becker, "but I've never seen anything like it." From heaven to hell, from hell to heaven - and back once more, it was the motto of this crazy game in which nothing was certain, although everything seemed clear early on.
Boris Becker: "Advertising for tennis"
Zverev had, viewed soberly, lost the first Grand Slam final of his career after a 2-0 set lead, he was the first player in New York to miss such a comfortable lead in 71 years. But what happened in those four hours and one minute in the largest tennis stadium in the world was more - a game with incredible twists and turns on the home straight, a duel with incredible force, intensity and passion. Finally, a duel that was reminiscent of a heavyweight boxing match, with two staggering fighters who were still fighting for every point when they could barely stand on two legs. He saw "two gladiators", according to Becker, "who advertised tennis."
Zverev will often remember this nightmare of missed opportunities, no doubt. He had all the trumps in his hand, he could very well have left the field as a surprisingly sure triumphant in three clear sentences. But he let Thiem back into the game, who accepted the invitation, equalized to 2-2 after sets. When the strength dwindled, a lot was only controlled from the subconscious, Zverev almost pushed open the door to tennis paradise again. He took Thiem's serve to 5: 3 in the fifth set, hit the US Open title win - and conceded the 5: 4. In Thiem's next service game, he was only two points away from the cup at 0:30, and again the Austrian jumped the Grand Slam death off the shovel.
The final for reading in the live ticker
Thiem against Zverev: drama in the fifth sentence
It went on and on in this fascinating tennis battle. Everything was possible, nothing impossible. Thiem managed the break to 6: 5, Zverev the rebreak to 6: 6. The tiebreaker had to decide, that ruthless game of chance, this cruel and equally wonderful condensation of the drama. It was introduced to tennis 50 years ago, but in New York it had never been a final in the fifth set. "Every point gained is so gigantic important, every point loss is a huge burden," said Zverev later. What happened in the last ten minutes, shortly after two in the morning in Germany, was basically like the microcosm of the whole absurdly fluctuating final: Zverev led 2-0, he forgave the lead, was 3: 5 and 4: 6 behind, had two match balls against each other. Fended them off, made it 6: 6.
And then, after four weeks in the New York tennis bubble, after 3 hours and 59 minutes played in the final, the next two points for Thiem decided this titanic performance. The Austrian sank lengthways, Zverev stepped over to him, the two friends hugged. The long wait was over for Thiem, he had lost his first three Grand Slam finals. For Zverev, however, there was initially only the hope of being the first to cross the finish line elsewhere or in New York as soon as possible.
Zverev thanks to his parents: "They were always with me"
Zverev's disappointment was initially hidden, after the tiebreak accident he was sitting in the Ashe Palace, this haunted house of the US Open 2020, like the loneliest person on the planet on his bench, he didn't make a face, stared into somewhere and nowhere. At the award ceremony, the mandatory words of the runner-up, the hidden feelings broke out. Zverev had contested this entire Grand Slam fight all alone, for the first time since the beginning of his career neither mother Irina nor father Alexander and brother Mischa were there - now, as a heartbroken loser and speaker, Zverev immediately thought of the family.
He owes everything to his parents, said Zverev, "They were always with me, were always there for me. But they couldn't come, both tested positive for Corona. ”Zverev's voice failed twice and tears flowed. Then he just said in the direction of the parents: "Thank you."
For a brief moment he posed with the silver bowl of the loser in the final to take a picture with Thiem. Then he left, Thiem stayed on the stage. It was over. What a day.