Alexander Zverev has reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at the French Open 2018. There he also had to pay tribute to the difficult matches in the first rounds.
It was like an alarm when Alexander Zverev grabbed his left thigh in the third game of the first set. Zverev seemed irritated, insecure, a little at a loss. He had already guessed what the outcome of this quarter-final day, this match in grey Paris would be, the biggest Grand Slam match of his career against Dominic Thiem, the friend and colleague. And actually nothing got better for Zverev from that very early moment on, it just got worse and worse on the Centre Court, game by game, sentence by sentence.
It didn’t even take two hours until Zverev, who was injured on his thigh and was handicapped, had to step onto the net when he lost 4:6, 2:6, 1:6 against Thiem. The adventurous journey of the German under the Eiffel Tower was over, with a bitter farewell and last dramatic sequences. Although Zverev had lost in black and white against Thiem, he had actually lost against himself – against the sometimes unnecessary exertions he had put himself through in the matches in the first week of the tournament. The 21-year-old from Hamburg had to cross the full French Open distance three times, three times he had to turn a 1:2 set deficit into a sweaty triumph.
It was a repeated act of strength, an exploitation of resources, which resented his body after all. Zverev could not be more Zverev when the Grand Slam phase came to a head – with only eight candidates for the Paris Silver Cup. “It should be a learning effect for Sascha to play matches in the starting phase even more concentrated and effective,” said Boris Becker, not only men’s department head of the DTB, but also a mentor of Zverev.
For fifteen sets, from the second to the fourth round of the tournament, Zverev was like a whirlwind on the Paris sand courts, often enough he had made the impossible possible – and finally, finally, also on one of the big tennis stages, gained respect and recognition. But it was too much of a good thing what Zverev had done in the red earth, this magic work of comebacks – it fell back on him in the hardest match, against the compact, clever and concentrated Thiem.
Against Thiem it would have been extremely difficult even for a symptom-free Zverev with a success, but for a battered Zverev it was a utopian project. “Of course, it was hard for Sasha in this condition. He’s one of the fittest of them all, but you can’t just shake them off,” said Thiem. Thiem also remained extremely cool and confident in a situation in which many a professional colleague has already lost his head and nerves.
The Austrian continued to play professionally and calmly as if there was a fitter and not a battered opponent on the other side of the net. It was probably also the greatest respect he could show his buddy Zverev. In his current form, the 24-year-old from Lower Austria seems to be the only one who can prevent Rafael Nadal from winning the eleventh Roland Garros title. With his third semi-final participation in the French Open in series, he impressively underlined and consolidated his role as Nadal Crown Prince in the sand district.
“All you can do is take your hat off to Thiem. He’s playing a brilliant tournament here again,” said Sweden’s former superstar Mats Wilander. And the beaten Zverev? He earned respect at this Grand Slam, it was a career step forward for him, it was a breakthrough at the lighthouse tournaments of the travelling circus. Where a player’s profile can be significantly enhanced, Zverev, as a French Open quarter-finalist, has left the first important traces – and indicated that he can also go the very long way to triumph and succession of German Grand Slam winners such as Becker or Michael Stich.
At the very last meters he also collected sympathies in Paris that could become important once again. He did not give up against Thiem, despite pain and the worry of having to carry these injury problems on grass into the next season. He had also won something else as a loser, namely recognition.