This match probably does not feature on the lists of many when it came to the best matches of 2016. However “great” does not mean “best”, and with this selection I have been liberal with my interpretation of great, picking a match with good play, but a real story behind it that makes it one of the great moments of 2016 on the ATP World Tour.
Florian Mayer defeats Alexander Zverev, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, Halle Final.
This selection isn’t because the players displayed sensational tennis. Though the tennis on display was certainly of a high level, this match had a feel-good factor written all over it.
Mayer was forced to miss much of the 2015 season with a pelvis injury sustained through the wear-and-tear of more than a decade as a professional, and when he made his comeback in Bucharest ranked at no.268, few would have predicted that he would end the year at No.50. Yet he a move of nearly two hundred ranking positions by winning the pre-Wimbledon tune-up in Halle, defeating the likes of Dominic Thiem, and Andreas Seppi en route to a final with Alexander Zverev.
Zverev has spent most of the last two years making a name for himself. Establishing a solid all-round game, Zverev has been heralded as the first German player since a young Tommy Haas that fans and pundits alike feel could compete for Grand Slam titles. With a ranking at No.24 (it has been inside the Top 20 this year), Zverev is expected to compete with Dominic Thiem, and others for future glories.
This match, with 500 ATP points at stake, was important for both men. Mayer got off to a fast start, as Zverev’s serve let it down early, double-faulting on break point in the sixth game to hand the veteran the early advantage. Zverev was the one employing more traditional grass-court tennis by coming to net, yet the wily Mayer was producing superb lobs and passing shots, finding a second break to take the first set in surprisingly easy fashion.
Mayer’s early success seemed to set him up well for the title when he forced a match point against the Zverev serve with the younger man serving at four-five. Mayer missed fractionally wide with a forehand however, and paid the price in the next game. Zverev set up break point with a drop shot winner, before breaking and serving out to take the all-German final to a deciding set.
Mayer came back to force the issue in the third set, breaking first and attempting to serve out. On his third match point, Zverev denied a diving Mayer with a brilliant forehand cross-court pass to earn a reprieve. Mayer finally secured the win when Zverev missed long with a forehand on the fifth match point, and the man who had started the year ranked at N0.268, would go into the next event at Wimbledon with a ranking of No.80.
This match was so many things. It was the return to the Top 100 of a veteran refusing to let injury end his career. It was a match-up that many were proclaiming as the passing of the baton in German tennis. Yet Mayer sent a message to the tennis world that even veterans further down the rungs of men’s professional tennis should never be discounted in favour of the younger generation. At least not just yet.
