ATP: Alexander Zverev: Grand Slam initial ignition in Paris?

Alexander Zverev created a rare picture in Rome for a short time: a Rafael Nadal in complete perplexity, before the rain break helped him. The second leg could take place in Paris, but not until the final.

There was also a remarkable German tennis victory on this long Pentecost weekend. However, it was the 17-year-old Rudi Molleker who succeeded. Molleker, one of the next but one generation, won his first Challenger tournament, a very well-filled competition in Heilbronn. In the fast-moving tennis industry, Molleker is once again regarded as the next big and hot thing, a promise for the future.

Another German player, only four years older than Molleker and still very young as a professional, missed a memorable triumph in Rome on Sunday. Of course, it’s Alexander Zverev, the 21-year-old from Hamburg, who is currently performing better than ever before in his brilliant career – and just as naturally the very best have to compete at the moment to get this Zverev into trouble or even beat him. After a wild roller coaster ride, Zverev seemed to be on the verge of bringing the mighty sand court king Rafael Nadal to his knees for the first time in the Masters final. Zverev was already leading 3-1 in the third, decisive set. But then dark clouds of rain came up over Foro Italico, the game was interrupted for almost an hour. And as it went on, Nadal won all other games to win 6:1, 1:6, 6:3 titles and to jump back to number 1 in the world rankings. “You’re playing a big year. You have a great future ahead of you,” said Nadal, the champion, then to the defeated Zverev. Nadal doesn’t say things like that because he has to, as a nice phrase. He means business.

Nadal, now the eight-time winner in Rome, must fear Zverev as one of the few rivals who will cause him problems and perhaps even beat him at the Grand Slam Festival in Paris next weekend. In the Roman final, the German once brought nine of eleven games against the champion of all classes on clay, none of them brought the beefy Mallorcan in an ash court final since 2016 into comparable problems as Zverev at these Italian championships. “You have to get the maximum out of Rafa to the last point. I couldn’t do that,” said Zverev.

But this failure was not to be understood as failure, Zverev’s tournament appearance all in all fit into a great season on sand. Munich won, Madrid won, only Nadal lost in Rome, the best of all times in this special tennis discipline – it was the strongest run a German professional ever had in this millennium. Just for comparison: Tommy Haas won a Masters tournament in his career, Zverev has already won three of these cups. Five Masters tournaments have been played so far in 2018, Zverev alone reached the final three times. No wonder someone like American Davis Cup captain Jim Courier says: “If he doesn’t do a lot of wrong, he’ll soon be number one”.

Zverev’s game, his career ever has experienced an evolution once again this year. He played at a consistently high level in the last few weeks full of matches, again and again winning games against rivals from the top 10 or top 20, and Zverev is currently refining his power with better precision on serve anyway. But also in the long, gruelling baseline duels. So why should Zverev make himself small, now that he is putting substance to the eternal eulogies of recent years, with results. He sees himself as one of five players who could beat Nadal on a good day, says Zverev. He is right, even though he has now lost five of five matches against the powerful Spaniard. For many professionals a duel with Nadal is completely hopeless, they don’t have the strength, constitution and technique that it takes. But Zverev is not one of them. He also managed to create a rare image in Rome, a needle in complete helplessness. That was in the second set, in which Nadal was once on the verge of destroying his racket with rage.

Zverev has left himself room for improvement on the outstanding Grand Slam venues, too much space even if you consider his just beginning career. He now needs a tournament appearance that acts as an initial spark for the majors’ great deeds, which gives him self-confidence and dispels doubts. One would have always thought that Zverev would make this breakthrough on the fast hard courts, at the US Open for example. Maybe on grass in Wimbledon. But now it can also become something for him in Paris, the courses there are actually also hard courses, only with a little bit of sand on top. In warm weather, a strong serve like Zverev has even more advantages.

One thing Zverev has already done through the impressive performances of the last weeks: He has defended third place in the world rankings, which in the absence of Roger Federer is equivalent to second place in Roland Garros’ seed list. Nadal can only reappear on the other side of the net in the final. “I don’t have to see him again before, either,” Zverev said in Rome.