Australian Open: Alexander Zverev and the unsolved Grand Slam puzzle

Alexander Zverev is still waiting for a win against a top 50 player in a major. After his bitter knockout in round three of Melbourne, Roger Federer’s 20-year-old gets cheered up.

Alexander Zverev had recently left no doubt about a very big goal for the future. When asked at the beginning of the year at the Hopman Cup in Perth what he wanted to do better, the German high-flyer said:”Being more successful in the Grand Slams. Maybe even win one of these tournaments soon.”

He also said it because in the past year it had been a considerable beauty flaw in the big upswing, that conspicuous weakness in the majors, a below-average performance, a performance discrepancy with other performances. In fact, in 2017 there was a most inspiring Zverev in the regular daily tour routine. And a Zverev, which seemed to be slightly cramped, when it was necessary to grow with the size of the Grand Slam tasks.

On Saturday afternoon, at the end of the first Grand Slam week and the usual interim settlement, Zverev would have liked to balance a new departure at the Australian Open 2018, a departure into unprecedented territory at one of the four majors. But when he left the Rod Laver Arena in the early evening, he had just experienced a bitter and deplorable setback.

In the last round of a five-set duel with his South Korean generation colleague Hyeun Chung, Zverev had been given the last whistle as hardly before in his promising professional career. To zero, with maximum penalty. It was an embarrassment for Hamburg, whose result crisis at Grand Slam level did not come to an end in Melbourne, but was continued with the 7:5,6:7 (3:7), 6:2,3:6,0:6 knockout, which was particularly unpleasant on the home straight.

Zverev later said that he had won the game in four sets and that the level was “very good”, except for the fatal last section. But the core of the problems he initially did not touch on it, his difficult mental condition at the Grand Slam tournaments, the unsolved puzzle, organized resistance to organize when the air becomes thin on the Centre Court, when he is in distress and distress. In the final phase, the world number four collapsed in this latest of his Grand Slam dramas.

Of course, Zverev was quite right later when he said that he was only 20 years old, and in this stage of his career only “very few” had already won a Grand Slam. But it is by no means the case that there would only be outside pressure on Zverev to achieve something very extraordinary right now. The pressure also comes from himself, he is not the most patient of the so-called next generation, the future power elite. In Melbourne, he wanted to turn the story of his Grand Slam performances around in no time at all, but the test against the stable Chung, the winner of the NextGen 2017 finals in Milan, proved to be too complex for the top German player.

Boris Becker, the men’s department manager of the DTB, said:”You didn’t have the impression that there was a plan B or C when plan A didn’t work out”. This was, intentionally or not, also addressed to the renowned Zverev competence team. Those people who are at least a little bit partly responsible for the fact that the Zverev company has a balance sheet weakness in the Grand Slams.

Zverev made it past the heaviest ascent in the world’s closest league last year, finishing in fourth place despite a few Grand Slam slip-ups. One of those, by the way, was certainly not the third-round match loss against Matador Nadal in Melbourne a year ago. In the modern tennis world, however, the majors are more important than ever, they do not only determine a superficial market value, they even define the tennis professional.

But in this royal discipline, in this royal class, Zverev has so far tended to run with it. He is not yet a power factor, not a determining force. Rather, he is a seeker, one who is still working on the assembly of the great puzzle. He is also driven by environmental factors as well as by himself, by Alexander Zverev:”I am not yet where I want to go with the slams,” says Zverev,”I may also want to do some things too much and too quickly.

Zverev reported that he also spoke to Roger Federer in the cabin immediately after his own defeat. It was comforting, anabolic and assorting words by Federer, including the admonition not to ask too much of oneself already now. After all, Federer himself experienced what Zverev is currently going through – but in a less excited time, without these powerful voices, which are now also breaking into a man like Zverev from all directions of social networks.

You could read it again after this defeat, the excited mood: Zverev was overrated, arrogant, not a fighter type in the Grand Slams, wasting his potential. Until his Wimbledon victory in 2003, the Swiss player had heard something like that, but then, with a magical tournament victory in the most important arena of all, the spell was broken.

This dream story won’t happen again. She’s unique, literally, in Federer’s person. But Zverev has to find more composure and equanimity in the Grand Slams at some point, if he ever wants to develop the ultimate punch. He has, for his age, long ago a captivating record against the big players of the industry in the “normal” travelling circus:

Eleven victories against top 10 players on the ATP Tour, five victories against top 5 competitors. He won his Masters title in 2017 in finals against Djokovic and Federer. But in the major competitions, however, there is still the deficit of not having beaten a top 50 opponent so far. But everything can also change very quickly. At least with someone who has such fascinating possibilities as Zverev.