By Owen Lewis
It hasn’t been the best year for Alexander Zverev. He lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open to Milos Raonic, putting up shockingly little resistance: 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (5). At the French Open, Zverev made the quarterfinals, but ran into world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. After failing to serve out the first set, Zverev won four games for the rest of the match as Djokovic sailed to victory. On the lawns at Wimbledon, he lost in the first round to Jiri Vesely, a qualifier, in four sets. And at the U.S. Open, Zverev, after playing attritional four and five set matches in the early rounds, lost in four to Diego Schwartzman in the fourth round.
That’s not a great year of results for the 22-year-old German, particularly not after winning the ATP finals in 2018 (he beat Federer and Djokovic back-to-back in the semifinals and finals). And his poor matches are at times baffling- at his best, Zverev has a huge serve, a solid forehand, a world-class backhand, and the ability to rally with the best players on the tour. But too often this year his serve has failed him, and he’s hit numerous double faults each match- sometimes 15 to 20.
This started to change during the Laver Cup. Zverev sealed the team-style tournament for Team Europe with a forehand passing shot against his nemesis from Down Under, Raonic. Since then, he’s been playing good tennis- in the recent Beijing tournament, he endured a tough loss against Stefanos Tsitsipas, but he looks to be well on the way to his best form now- if not already there.
Zverev begun his Shanghai Masters with wins over Jeremy Chardy and Andrey Rublev, then faced a quarterfinal clash with 20-time major champion Roger Federer. Zverev started strong, breaking Federer’s serve in the sixth game. At 30-all, the German hit a dart of a forehand return right into the corner, then quickly converted his opportunity when Federer’s forehand misfired. Zverev continued serving well, and hit some great passing shots, ripping some forehands and backhands past Federer at the net. The rest of the set went with serve and Zverev took it 6-3.
The second set was enormously dramatic. Federer held to open the set and then broke Zverev’s serve for the first time, controlling the court throughout a long rally and then winning the point with a drop shot. Zverev broke straight back, though, crashing a huge crosscourt backhand passing shot past Federer and then running down a drop volley and flicking it down the line for a winner. Some comfortable holds were exchanged following the breaks until Federer served at 5-all. Zverev clawed his way to a break point at 30-40, and after a long rally whipped a forehand pass down the line.
It appeared that Zverev was going to cruise to victory when he went up 40-love, but Federer somehow kept himself alive- the Swiss great hit a couple gorgeous volleys to save three match points and reach deuce. Zverev then pushed a backhand volley beyond the baseline, and Federer took the break point with some absurd shotmaking: he hit a perfectly placed, impeccably timed, backhand half-volley that Zverev had no hope of reaching. During the tiebreak, Federer saved two more match points and took it with an ace: 9-7.
After such a momentum shift, it seemed that Federer might romp through the third set, but Zverev was able to keep the missed chances from haunting him. He broke Federer at the first opportunity in the deciding set, then held for 3-0. His opponent showed his frustration by swatting a ball away and suffered the punishment in the form of a point penalty. Federer saved two break points when serving at 0-3, and another at 1-4, but couldn’t make a mark on Zverev’s serve, who hit 17 aces and just one double fault. The German served out the match to 15, and triumphantly declared that his time had come (possibly with an expletive thrown in).
Maybe Zverev’s time has come. He now has a 4-3 record against Federer, and owns two wins over Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1. While I’m on that topic, Zverev’s fellow “NextGener” and rival Tsitsipas took out Djokovic today, also in three sets: 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. The much-talked-about changing of the guard in men’s tennis seems to have been knocking on the door for ages, but the Big Three (Federer, Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal) are experts at ignoring the knocks and have been dominating tennis since 2004. But Zverev and Tsitsipas will only get better, and have 21 and 22-year-old legs to boot.
The one task that the young stars in the men’s game have been unable to achieve is breaking through at the Grand Slam level in best-three-out-of-five matches. This year, Djokovic and Nadal (32 and 33 years old, respectively) each won two slams. Tsitsipas managed to topple Federer in the 4th round Down Under, but was humbled by Nadal two rounds later: 6-2, 6-4, 6-0. Dominic Thiem (though he is 26, hardly a young star) won a brutal five setter against Djokovic at the French Open semifinals, but Nadal crushed his hopes in the final: 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
Even so, wins like today’s will only boost the younger players’ confidence. The 2020 Australian Open is in three months, and Zverev, Tsitsipas, and others will be eager to star growing legacies of their own. After today, Alexander “Sascha” Zverev is on the right track.