Alexander Zverev has qualified for the ATP Final in London for the second time in a row. And like last year we will not be performing at the #NextGen-Masters in Milan.
Two things are remarkable from a national point of view at the beginning of this tennis week, on the home straight of the series. One has to do with Alexander Zverev, the 21-year-old Hamburg resident Monte Carlo. Or rather, it has to do with him indirectly. Because the NextGen Championships in Milan clearly show the amazing performance Zverev is still able to achieve in this very early stage of his career.
While the highly acclaimed newcomers like the Greek Tsitsipas or some other contemporaries like the Russian Andrej Rublew fight out their title fight in the fashion metropolis, Zverev mixes as a matter of course on the really big stage – in London’s O2 Arena, at the ATP finals. After Becker and Stich, Germany had only two players who qualified once for this final tournament of the greats, Nicolas Kiefer in 1999 and Rainer Schüttler in 2003. Both even reached the semi-finals convincingly.
Zverev is now with his 21 years a kind of repeat offender, like 2017 he played a season on a constantly high level, even had very strong moments. He also showed weaknesses, especially with the majors, but nevertheless: The renewed London qualification underlines his class, and it also shows that Zverev’s recent assessment is not entirely inaccurate. Namely the fact that in Germany he is only measured by Grand Slam titles – and not by the overall development that his career has taken.
Another word to Steffi Graf. She also made a few headlines, as tournament ambassador for the somewhat strange B-World Championship in Zhuhai, China. In this capacity Graf had one of her rare public appearances in the year, and it was once again remarkable how the German looked at her tennis successes and her present life. Unlike so many in the industry, Graf no longer lives in the past, does not lose himself in nostalgia for his own successes. She has both feet in another, rather unagitated life. You could find that exciting again. Because it’s so rare.