Wimbledon: Alexander Zverev – Away from the island, from auf´s Boat

Alexander Zverev takes a break after his exit against Ernests Gulbis in Wimbledon. During the 2018 lawn season, Germany’s number one has never really got going.

By Jörg Allmeroth from London

And then there was the story of the boat. Alexander Zverev had to get rid of them somehow, in the last seconds of his last hour in Wimbledon. It was completely unnecessary, it was superfluous. But the German Grand Slam loser was determined to draw the line between himself and Wimbledon. And the chaos that surrounded him in the most important, brightest and biggest of all the major competitions.

“I’m sure you won’t see me here anymore,” Zverev called out to the journalists in the conversation room, the so-called “Main Interview Room”, “tomorrow I’ll be on the boat.” On vacation, at home in Monte Carlo.

Away from the island, away from Wimbledon. And from auf´s boat. So Wimbledon ended 2018 for Zverev, with a dramatic 6:7, 6:3, 7:5, 3:6, 0:6 defeat against Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, and with an urgent desire for distance, holidays, moments without tennis. There was also a slanted, slightly arrogant undertone in the young German’s statement on this point, in the history of Boots.

But Zverev simply, as one of his staff later this Saturday put it openly, “was fed up” after all the confusion of the last days and weeks, after repeated setbacks: “He’s suffered a lot. “At the most important time of the season, of all times.” The disunity of the weakened title favourite could also be felt in the match, when he had fought a dispute with line and referee and even received a warning for it. “I don’t think I said anything hugely wrong,” Zverev said later.

Zverev, already feeling a little the decreasing forces, had cursed on the square in front of him, actually only offended himself. But it was a violation of sacred etiquette, a linesman snitched. And Zverev said, “All he wants to do is make himself important.” It was a sentence in the heat of the battle, which some quickly interpreted as arrogance again – without feeling, without sensitivity for the situation.

Because Zverev was again unlucky in Wimbledon before bad luck came along. The match against Gulbis was the highlight of the frustration at these Open English Championships in 2018, “To Paris,” Zverev said, “I’ve never really gotten on the right track”. There, at the French Open, the man from Hamburg had made three thrilling chases to catch up on his way to the quarter-finals after trailing 1:2 sets, before he retired with a defeat against his buddy Dominic Thiem, but also because of a muscle injury.

Zverev came to Wimbledon without much playing experience and match experience. In Halle, after a first defeat against the later champion Borna Coric, he struck his sails and then caught a gastrointestinal virus in the All England Club. He struggled in a bright moment on Friday, in the extra time of his abandoned match against the American Taylor Fritz, still in round three.

But physically attacked, he simply lacked a break, time for regeneration. After the third set against Gulbis, the third in the world rankings, who in the final phase of the game felt as if someone had pulled out the plug”: “There was zero energy in me. There was no way back.” In the last set he did not win a game any more, it was an end full of bitterness for Zverev.

He also looked pale afterwards, looked exhausted, completely exhausted. It’s holiday season. “I still have 15 years to do something big here,” Zverev said, “I’m not worried.” Despite the difficulties at Wimbledon, his season so far has been quite satisfactory, with the victory at the Masters in Madrid in the spring, with stabilization among the top 5 in the world rankings.

Wimbledon, Zverev said, is internally “checked off.” But not Paris, the performance there. “I felt like I should have come a long way, even to the final,” he said, “I was the best player on clay, next to Nadal, before the French Open.

But even this disappointment can and must leave Zverev behind. On the boat, in Monte Carlo.