Alexander Zverev doesn’t know much about big matches – he doesn’t need to be afraid of big matches – he doesn’t need to have any against Roger Federer.
By Florian Goosmann from London
Don’t the young people have any respect for the old people anymore? If you have heard a scene in the run-up to the ATP Tour Finals in London, the answer has to be “no”.
Federer was giving a TV interview when Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov, Marin Cilic, Jack Sock and David Goffin sneaked up and positioned themselves in the picture. Federer looked around, irritated and laughing out loud as he noticed the shadows, and wrote in a tweet with the scene:”I will take revenge”.
He managed to get revenge on Jack Sock, at least on the court. It was not a glittering appearance, but one that was about the “right intensity”, about the “energy” and about the big points, as so often. Federer won in two sets, something else was not expected of him, he leads his group according to his rank. So now it’s against the second group winner, Zverev.
“It’s going to be a different match,”said Federer,”I’ve seen him play a little last time, but if he’s doing well, like Montreal or Rome, it’s going to work.”
Zverev himself proved two things in his first match against Marin Cilic: a similarly high intensity at the beginning, when he dominated and took advantage of the uncertain Cilic. And at the end a big heart, when he was trailing 1:3 and 0:30 in the third set and you had the feeling for a short time that he let it run now. Zverev then took the lead with a heavy serve and broke Cilic, although he already had two balls to 4-2. It was exactly after a 40:15 forehand mistake from Cilic’s point of view, when Zverev left out his fury on the racket and was lucky enough to play a big shot – he ended up scoring eight points in a row for his own 4:3 lead and took the Croatian’s serve to win the match.
And, typical of the never-satisfied Zverev: Right after the match he hit a few balls in the empty arena to get a better feeling than he had that night.
His outlook on Federer:”I played against him a couple of times this year. Three times if you count the Hopman Cup. They were all big matches, hopefully another one will follow.”
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What Zverev didn’t mention was that he is one of the few players to have a balanced balance against Switzerland (2-2); if you count the match in the Hopman Cup at the beginning of the year, a pure tie-break duel, Zverev even leads 3-2. At the last game in Montreal, Zverev’s second 1000cc title, Federer was injured at the back, which should not diminish Zverev’s performance.
In the arena it’s the first duel between the two of them, what Federer was supposed to be doing, as well as the additional experience in the o2-arena “It’s something completely different to go on the pitch here, unlike in other stadiums. The spectators, the atmosphere – that’s great. The show before we march in is very special,”said Zverev,”he’s happy that he’s had the first match,” there were a lot of nerves in it.
Both Zverev and Federer got a dream start in their first match, Federer himself played the points, he is almost at home in the o2-arena, despite his absence last year. One could also say: He has the experience of age. That Zverev and Co. have no compelling respect for it…. well, that’s what we’ve been through.