Wimbledon: 0:6 in set five: Sascha Zverev runs out of strength at the end

Alexander Zverev has missed the next round of the last 16 in Wimbledon. Despite a 2:1 set lead, he lost to Latvian Ernests Gulbis on Saturday evening.

The extra shift on Saturday may have been too much for Alexander Zverev: After his comeback win over Taylor Fritz – the match had been abandoned from Zverev’s point of view due to darkness on Friday after trailing 1:2 sets – the third in the world rankings lost his third round match against Ernests Gulbis with 6:7 (2), 6:4, 7:5, 3:6, 0:6.

In a balanced first set, Gulbis got the better start into the tiebreak, in the second set, the man from Hamburg replied with the direct break at the beginning, which he transported to set equalisation.

Gulbis, with a beard length just above Wimbledon’s typical 8-millimeter cut, presented himself as the expected difficult opponent: the 29-year-old from Latvia, number ten in the world in 2014, has been on his way forward again for a year. He travelled to the Wimbledon Tournament 2017 as World Ranking 589th and had beaten Juan Martin del Potro there, currently he is in 139th place and, perhaps most important of all, Günter Bresnik is back on the coaching team; Dominic Thiem’s coach also sat on Court No.1 today.

Gulbis has put the Albatros forehand from his successful year behind him for a long time and showed that he is serious again. Zverev had won three break chances in a row three at 2-2 with great tennis, but Gulbis fought back – and with a determined forehand he took his first chance in the previous 4-3 match, but Zverev rediscovered his fighting spirit shortly before losing a set and won four games in a row – despite a warning due to unpleasant words in the direction of a linesman.

Hot-bloodedly it went on also in passage four. Zverev had an early break chance here, but it was Gulbis who managed the 4-2 lead – after a verbal battle between the two opponents – whom he took to win the set. In the deciding round Gulbis turned up again, while Zverev, possibly still struck by his stomach virus, collapsed further and further and caught up with the maximum penalty.

“It’s a great day, I didn’t think I could win. But in the end he got tired – and I played smart,” said Gulbis after the match. “I trained hard, played the qualification, even in Paris,” he explained his self-confidence, with which he is currently playing.