By Cheryl Jones
The first time I was aware of Alexander Zverev, he was 18. He was a gangly 6’6” tall. He likely weighed about 165 pounds as long as he had a few rocks in his pockets. (Well, maybe not rocks, but some sort of poundage that was not there before he donned his tennis clothing.)
It was during the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, a grass court tourney. Over the twenty-five years the GWO has been in existence, many German players have been given an opportunity to show their tennis talents to their compatriots. (The GWO is the tournament that Roger Federer has signed a promise to attend for the rest of his professional career.) Philipp Kohlschreiber, Dustin Brown, and Florian Mayer are just a few of the players who have been given that same opportunity. The brightest star has been Zverev who has a catchy nickname, “Sascha”, likely as a rhyming accompaniment to his brother’s name or to distinguish him from his father who shares the name Alexander. Mischa Zverev, who also plays on the tour, is ten years older. His father is his coach. (The elder Alexander played professional tennis for the Soviet Union. In 1991 the family relocated to Germany.)
He has spent his years on the tour steadily climbing the ladder of tennis success with his ranking now at number 3 in the world. His rise in the professional tennis world is in a word – meteoric. Because Federer chose not to compete in Paris, he is seeded number 2 at Roland Garros. At age 21 years 51 days at the end of the tournament, if he could manage to win, he would be the youngest Grand Slam men’s singles champion since Juan Martin Del Potro who won the US Open at 20 years 355 days. Even though clay is not his best surface, he now has two wins notched on his belt at Roland Garros after today’s defeat of Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, 2-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
His play in Paris isn’t a fluke. He has had a miraculous year. He warmed up by winning titles at Munich and Madrid. He reached the final at Rome and the semifinals at Monte Carlo. He lost to Nadal in Rome, where his thirteen match winning streak came to an end. He reached the final at Miami, where he lost to American, John Isner.
He won his thirty-third tour level match of the year today. And, lest that seem like an ordinary feat, he is ahead of any other player in competition this year. (Dominic Thiem has 30; Rafael Nadal and Del Potro have 24, and Fabio Fognini has 23)
Today, Zverev’s win covered some “new to him” ground. He had never played a five set match in his three appearances at this venue. Today, he was frustrated for a time, but his maturity allowed him to tough it out (actually, there was a bit of racquet smashing involved, but…) and he remained focused enough to pull away from Lajovic whose ranking is 60 presently, and the last two sets were his for the taking.
A lot has changed for Zverev since I first marvelled at the gangly young man who had such nice strokes. He’s filled out a bit – just enough to be impressive and not gangly any more. He’s not a teenager and his wonderment at all that professional tennis encompasses has steadied. He was asked how he feels about competing in majors in his after-match interview. He said, “I’m not even going to lie. It did feel different in the last years, even in the Australian Open, I did feel a difference. Now, I take it as a big tournament, but I take the Masters Series as a big tournament.” He wound up his interview by saying, “I’m trying to do everything that I can to really enjoy the moments and enjoy playing on big courts, enjoy playing those great fights like I had today. As long as you’re enjoying your thing, I think the success will come itself.”
He’s definitely on the right track and he is proving that indeed, the success will come. There’s more than just a game on the line. There’s the realization of dreams and hopes that are supported by hard work and talent and a good deal of innate ability, and a little bit of serendipity.
