Olympia: Alexander Zverev wins gold!
Alexander Zverev won the final of the Olympic tennis tournament and thus secured a gold medal for the German team.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Aug 01, 2021, 11:38 am
Zverev beat Karen Khachanov (Russia) in the final on Sunday morning with 6.3, 6: 1.
For the first time since Boris Becker and Michael Stich in doubles in 1992, a German tennis professional won the gold medal at the Olympic Games, most recently Angelique Kerber won silver in the women's singles in 2016. Steffi Graf won the last individual gold medal in 1988 in Seoul.
Zverev dominated the final almost consistently. Khachanov took the lead with a smooth service game, but the decisive break in the first half made it 2-1. Also in the second set, Zverev started highly concentrated, at 40: 0 in the first service game he was on the defensive for almost the entire rally and got the game down the line with a cracking backhand. Then he made the early break here too, at 3-0 he got the second break of the set in a long service game by Khachanov - the preliminary decision. Khachanov managed the honor game at 5-0 for Zverev.
Here you can read the match in the live ticker!
Zverev adds after defeating Djokovic
Overall, Zverev was clearly the more powerful player, Khachanov played well, but could not dictate too often, he ultimately lacked the force in the game. With his own serve, Zverev was also as good as unassailable: he only allowed one break chance in the first set and fended it off with a strong first service.
Zverev had surprisingly defeated world number one Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, after 1: 6, 2: 3 (break) deficit, called an outstanding performance and talked about the greatest moment of his tennis career . He has now gone one better.
More information will follow!