Australian Open: Alexander Zverev - The end of a "shitty week"
Alexander Zverev has to wait for his first title in a Grand Slam tournament. The loss to Denis Shapovalov in Melbourne 2022 hurts the Olympic champion a lot.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Jan 23, 2022, 01:50 pm
Alexander Zverev had just left the scene of his Australian Open humiliation with his shoulders hanging when the German tennis chancellor spoke up from the other end of the world. Boris Becker was standing in a Munich television studio, dressed all in black ("Appropriate for the occasion") and seemed more than shocked. Becker was once the man for the crazy Center Court moments, he liked to make the impossible impossible, he turned the wildest games around for himself and the tennis nation. Becker had seen nothing of this willpower, of this attitude of never, absolutely never giving up, on January 23, 2022 at Zverev, the most promising player since the golden German times, the proud Olympic champion: "You can have bad days, you can bad play. But you have to make an effort and leave your soul on the pitch," said Becker, shaking his head at Zverev's 3: 6, 6: 7 (5: 7), 3: 6 disaster against Canadian Denis Shapovalov, "there was no rebellion, none Body language." Becker's conclusion, then short and sweet: "That was a bitter smack."
In fact: Zverev's fall from pink tennis dreams of winning the first Grand Slam title of his career in Melbourne and jumping to number one in the world rankings could not have been more blatant on the seventh day of the Australian Open Championships 2022. For almost a week, the 24-year-old from Hamburg had done his work rather slowly, coping with the compulsory tasks quite lackluster, albeit efficiently, but nobody could have foreseen a Grand Slam disaster of this magnitude - an appearance at zero point, which was at the blackest of times of the young, inexperienced Zverev. “No one but me is to blame for this defeat. That's entirely on me," said Zverev later, "that was the worst game since Wimbledon last year." Overall, it was a "shitty week" in Melbourne, he never found the necessary level to start here to believe in a Grand Slam triumph.
Zverev remains an unstable power factor
At the most valuable competitions of the tennis season, the Grand Slam festivals in Melbourne, Paris, Wimbledon and New York, Zverev remains a rather unstable power factor even at the beginning of his ninth professional season - a man who, despite all his merits, is elsewhere, despite Olympic victory and two successes at the ATP World Championships, is not quite sure of himself. Public pressure and his own entitlement continue to paralyze the twenty-something on the Grand Slam stages too often, even now that he has stabilized in the narrower world elite and is rightly always counted among the title candidates for a major trophy.
In Melbourne it now seemed as if there was an ominous combination with the German frontman: the uncompromisingly formulated demand to create the next career breakthrough in Melbourne, but also a certain negligence in the initial phase of the tournament. Sometimes it seemed as if Zverev was looking at the late, tingling rounds early on in the long Australia Open march - for example at the possible quarter-finals against Rafael Nada. Or a conceivable final against US Open champion Daniil Medvedev.
Poor record against top 20 people at majors
In the not-so-electrifying everyday life, the golden boy struggled to find his way, to a form that somehow would have commanded deference and respect from his peering competitors. Zverev then really wanted to get going, he even put on extra shifts with training after weak games, but that didn't solve the tension. The striking impression remained: Zverev was simply not up to the Grand Slam challenge, a top player without any top performance. One who showed neither the physical nor the mental freshness that is urgently needed for a Grand Slam coup.
Some statistics in sports and especially in tennis are the hobby of number freaks, often enough superfluous and meaningless. But Zverev's record against top opponents in the Grand Slam highlights speaks an unmistakable language. Against top 20 competition his score is now 4:15 after the pitch-black Sunday at the National Tennis Center, against top ten opponents it is still 0:11. As hard as Zverev tries to call his Olympic victory the greatest possible career coup, one thing remains clear in world tennis: the rank, importance and legacy of a professional are defined by their performance in the four majors, the most important performance shows in this sport. And here Zverev is still too often below his potential, even in January 2022, even after 26 guest appearances on these exclusive tournament stages.
It remains uncertain whether Zverev can simply tick off the major false start to this season, which is accompanied by great hopes. Because on the threshold of new tennis territory, he fell back into old mistakes and behavioral patterns. The German number 1 still finds it difficult to somehow punch through against relevant competition on bad days. Against Shapovalov, the at best solid and average Canadian, Zverev's resistance collapsed early on. He also miserably missed the chance to bring about a turnaround in the meantime with a 5:3 lead in the second set. The rest of the game was: lethargy, frustration, listlessness. "There was no particular reason for it, no injury," Zverev fended off all conceivable excuses, "it was just a terrible performance." Finally, Zverev was asked how he now rated his goal of becoming number 1 this season. His answer was as honest as it was correct: "It would be silly and stupid to talk about it today."
Here is the individual tableau in Melbourne
laver arena