Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev - Frustration and anger in Melbourne
The German top stars Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev have justifiably high hopes for the Australian Open 2019. The balance is all the more sobering after the two-sided elimination in the round of 16.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Jan 22, 2019, 09:09 am
In the end, everything went a little quickly. Angelique Kerber was only eliminated in the round of 16 of the Australian Open with only two game wins and a 0: 6, 2: 6 loss to US girl Danielle Collins. And then Alexander Zverev did not make it any better in his 1: 6, 1: 6, 6: 7 failure against Canada's baller Milos Raonic in the fourth round of Melbourne. Both top German players were rightly credited with being able to say a word when awarding the title Down Under, but above all frustration and annoyance remained in the personal final settlement.
Kerber and Zverev now have to keep a cool head, the season is still long and offers many opportunities to forget the failure at the other end of the world. In the case of Angelique Kerber, the skillful moderation of Neutrainer Rainer Schüttler is also required, it is also about preventing a similar scenario as two years ago when Kerber plunged into the crisis after the 2016 parade season.
Kerber rose to leadership
On the other hand, the Kiel native has long since become a mature leader, has learned from the problems and defeats that kept depressing her in the world rankings at the time. She herself was optimistic that the poor appearance in the round of 16 would not "cost her the next weeks and months". You just have to accept defeats, they were part of the sport.
In fact, 127 players are sooner or later defeated in a Grand Slam tournament. But of course you want a different final impression than the one that Sascha Zverev left in the match against Raonic - it was the greatest disappointment for the 21-year-old from Hamburg, how he operated there in the first two sentences. Zverev has to wait for the big Grand Slam moment, for two weeks at one of the four top tournaments in which the whole package is right.
Zverev's generation colleagues are mobilizing
The mixture of nervous coolness, absolute determination and passion in the best of seven matches. In the case of Zverev, the extraordinary gentlemen around Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Co. were often seen as the greatest opponents and tests, but it turns out that generational colleagues of German are also mobilizing - keyword Stefanos Tsitsipas and his coup against Federer.
Zverev and his team of coaches around father Alexander and Ivan Lendl are therefore still waiting for a lot of fine-tuning and detailed work. In the contested top area of men's tennis, the climb to the absolute summit, even to Grand Slam fame, is not a short or medium-distance race, but rather a marathon. This also applies to the well advanced Zverev, World Cup title or not. Incidentally, he himself has pointed out this fact often enough.