ATP:”Sasha”, there’s something else!

One player caused a lot of excitement on the ATP Tour in 2017: Alexander Zverev has become one of the greats of today’s men’s tennis with five titles and an astonishing development and definitely makes you want more. We take a look back to the year 2017 of the 20-year-old.

Towards the end of the year, Alexander Zverev’s performance declined somewhat, but who can blame him? The calendar year 2017 was a complete success for the 20-year-old in every respect. The German developed further in almost every area – especially with regard to his attitude.

Next Monday,”Sascha” will be third in the world ranking behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, thus reaching his career high. The 20-year-old’s journey to this sensational performance began with a fun tournament at the Hopman Cup in Perth, when he played alongside Andrea Petkovic for fun against Federer and Co. played. Zverev was really serious about his appearance in Australia. After two victories against Robin Haase and Frances Tiafoe, the NextGen star scored a five-set thriller against Nadal, which he lost after four hours and six minutes of play. However, there were some signs of what was to be possible this year for the “little Zverev”.

In the next tournament in Montpellier, the Hamburg player made it clear that he can be counted on from the very beginning. With Jeremy Chardy, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet in the final, Zverev beat three Frenchmen in a row on the way to his second ATP title. After two defeats in Marseille and Rotterdam, the Masters came to the USA. A top form Nick Kyrgios stopped Zverev in the third round at Indian Wells. A déjà-vu was to see Zverev in Miami when he failed again on the back of a strong Australian, but this time he made it to the quarter-finals, after relegating Stan Wawrinka and John Isner to their places in the previous rounds.

Zverev, in contrast to 2016, continued to develop during the first months of the year and acquired a winning mentality that is second to none at his age. Unimpressed by better off opponents or even the backdrop, the 20-year-old remained true to his game and showed an astonishing maturity, especially in the mental area. Of course, anger outbursts and broken clubs also belong to Alexander Zverev. In May, however, they should not be seen in Munich. Alex triumphed at the BMW Open with great clay court tennis and won his first title on home soil. The big coup followed only a few weeks later, when he swept the local hero Fabio Fognini off the pitch in “Foro Italico” and then left Novak Djokovic with no chance in the final. The first Masters-1000 title in Rome finally catapulted Zverev onto the favourites list of every tournament.

Expectations of the 20-year-old had to be postponed with the first-round defeat at the French Open. Visibly strengthened, Zverev went into the grass court season and reached the final at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, where he was disenchanted by Roger Federer and received a lesson in “chip and charge” and perfect grass court tennis. In Wimbledon, the next disillusionment for the Grand Slams was to follow: In the round of sixteen “Sascha” lost to the Canadian Milos Raonic in just five sets.

With the second half of the season, Zverev was allowed to return to his favourite surface. Why Liebligsbelag? With the title in Washington and the Masters triumph in Montréal against Federer in the final just a week later, the Hamburg player turned out to be a true specialist for this underground. His powerful baseline strokes, coupled with a hard and constant serve, made Zverev an unpleasant opponent for every player.

However, Zverev paid tribute to the exhausting weeks and had to face some painful defeats. The second-round defeat at the US Open against Borna Coric made it clear that the 20-year-old felt the impact of his longest and most competitive season to date. In addition to qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals, the semi-final participation in Beijing was the German’s last big success before the end of the year.

In London, however, the current number three in the world will have a chance to compete with the best eight players of the season. For all German fans it is to be hoped that Zverev could recover before his first participation in the O2-Arena and will go into the matches with new reserves.

The most positive thing about the 2017 season, however, is that Zverev can still improve despite all his successes and five seasonal titles. Especially at the Grand Slam tournaments there is still plenty of room for the 20-year-old to collect a lot of points in 2018. This outlook clearly makes you want more.