Heading into this year’s Australian Open few had their money on Alexander Zverev staging a deep run after his far from perfect start to the season.
At the ATP Cup the German lost all three of his singles matches to top 20 opposition. He looked rusty, erratic and perhaps suffering from the consequences of playing a series of exhibition matches with Roger Federer throughout the off-season. However, at Melbourne Park the 22-year-old has managed to find his footing to remind everybody how much of a threat he can pose at the biggest tournaments of the sport.
This was evident in his latest match against Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals on Wednesday. A three-time grand slam champion who branded his previous match as the best he has played since undergoing surgery. It looked at if Wawrinka would be a stern challenger, but Zverev held his ground to prevail 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Admittedly, it wasn’t a flawless performance at times by the world No.7, who struggled early on. However, he was able to prevail with the help of 13 aces and 34 winners.
Zverev’s victory is a new milestone in his career. He has now reached the semi-finals of a major for the first time. To put this into perspective, prior to this year, he had only reached the quarter-finals twice at the French Open out of 18 grand slam main draw appearances.
“The Grand Slams maybe meant too much for me,” Zverev commented on his previous misfortunes.
“This year I actually came into the Australian Open with absolutely no expectations because I was playing horribly.’
“As I said, it’s going to be a process beginning of the week with the first few matches. I hope I could just get through them and start playing them better as the tournament gets along.
“This is what happened. I hope I can still continue to play better in the semifinals and hopefully maybe in the final.”
In recent year’s Zverev has been tipped as one of the successors to the illustrious Big Three and with good reason. Outside of that group, him and Andy Murray are the only active players to win three or more Masters 1000 titles. He is also a former ATP Finals champion and has won a total of 11 ATP titles. Speaking moments after his win over Wawrinka, he was quick to dismiss the victory as the greatest achievement of his career to date.
“I did win the World Tour Finals, so…. If I get to the final (of the Australian Open) it will be the greatest day of my life, but I like titles.” He said.
Throughout his career, he has had the luxury of working with former stars of the sport. Previously collaborating with Juan Carlos Ferrero and Ivan Lendl. However, both of those partnerships failed to live up to expectations. Instead, it is Zverev’s father who has been the key behind his success in recent times.
“There are a lot of opinions that I should get a new coach. There are a lot of opinions I should change it up. But every time I’m working alone with my dad, we can prove that we can win big titles and go to the further stages of big tournaments.” Zverev explained.
“He’s made me the player that I am. In my opinion, there is no need to change.’
“If he tells me he’s tired then I will get some help, but I think he will be part of my team for a very long time.”
It isn’t just his father that has had a positive impact on the German and his recent surge. Zverev believed at the majors in the past he has ironically been too focused on winning. Something he has changed this week in his bid for a maiden Australian Open title.
“Grand Slams were always the week where I kind of even wanted it too much.” He explained.
“I was doing things way too professionally. I was not talking to anybody. I wasn’t going out with friends. I wasn’t having dinner. I was just really almost too, too focused..’
“I’ve changed that a little bit this week. I’m doing much more things outside the court..”
“Maybe this is a steppingstone. Maybe this is how it should happen. We’ll see how it goes now in two days’ time.” He added.
Zverev is the first German man to reach the semi-final of a major since Tommy Haas at the 2007 US Open. He will play either Rafael Nadal or Dominic Thiem next.
Should he win the title this year, Zverev has pledged to donate all of his prize money to the Australian bush fire appeal.
