After being held back by an injury in the first Grand Slam quarter-finals of his career, Alexander Zverev threatens a longer break. His start into the grass court season is in danger.
Alexander Zverev knew immediately that after his return from Paris days of anxiety and uncertainty would await him. How serious is the thigh injury he suffered in the first Grand Slam quarter-finals of his career? What does the bitter end at the French Open against his Austrian buddy Dominic Thiem mean for his grass court season including the highlight in Wimbledon at the beginning of July?
There will be no quick answers. The hamburger knows he has to be patient. “In the case of such muscle injuries, you only see it two or three days later,” Zverev said after struggling in pain for almost two hours on the Centre Court against Thiem: “I’m going home now, definitely not doing anything at all and then seeing exactly what it is. I hope it’s nothing big. The grass season is around the corner.”
Zverev had already felt a sting in his left thigh early in the first movement, from the middle of the second movement he was physically completely restricted. He is not someone who calls out to the physiotherapist for every little thing, said the 21-year-old: “No, that really hurt”. But giving up, for the first time ever in 236 professional matches, was out of the question for Zverev. He preferred a clear 4:6, 2:6, 1:6-bankruptcy in the end.
It remains unclear for the time being whether his decision to continue playing may even have been accompanied by a worse injury. Zverev emphasized that he wanted to wait for the nuclear spin examination. Nevertheless, he thought about the coming weeks, especially about the planned start at the home tournament in Halle (16th to 24th June). “I hope that I will be ready,” Zverev said, “and Wimbledon is not so far away now either.”
But despite all the worries and uncertainties, even in the hour of bitter disappointment, the Hamburg native managed to draw an overall positive conclusion for his appearance in Roland Garros. “I won three five-set matches in a row and reached the quarter-finals for the first time,” he summed up: “It’s all very positive, the whole clay court season was positive.
On his credit side are the two tournament victories in May in Munich and at the Masters in Madrid, where he defeated Thiem 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Paris was now in the still young career of the third in the world rankings a further step on the way to the top.
But as inspiring as the successful five-set thrillers in rounds two, three and in the round of the last 16 were. Zverev himself also admitted that they were at least not innocent of his injury.
For his next Grand Slam appearances he therefore hopes to be able to choose a somewhat less strenuous way into the round of the last eight. Because the really big players, to whom Zverev wants to belong one day, will not only survive such long matches. They usually avoid them.