The man from Hamburg is seemingly hopelessly behind. Then he achieves great things.
Alexander Zverev was audibly struggling, he looked helplessly at his father in the stands, but in the end he fought his way out of the hole he had dug for himself in the Monte Carlo clay. Back on his favorite surface, the tennis star stumbled badly, but avoided a surprising exit. Zverev won his first clay court appearance of the current season against Chile’s Cristian Garín 4:6, 6:4, 7:5 thanks to a strong comeback.
“My level wasn’t there at all, to be honest. It was my first clay court match in eleven months and I didn’t have much time to prepare,“ said Zverev, adding with relief: ”In the end, it’s important to win somehow.”
The Hamburg native, who had already trailed 0:4 and 2:5 in the deciding set, reached the last 16 of the Masters in his adopted home city for the eighth time after 2:50 hours. A duel with Zizou Bergs awaits him there on Thursday. Zverev, who has never made it past the semi-finals in Monaco, will need to improve his performance against the Belgian, who is ranked 47th in the world.
Zverev fights on dramatically
Expert Patrik Kühnen cheered on Sky: “Outstanding fighting performance from Alexander Zverev. You’ve only lost when you no longer believe in yourself. That’s not the case with him. He played a great match. Chapeau Alexander Zverev.”
Zverev once started playing tennis on clay courts, which is why he actually feels particularly comfortable on this surface – but despite the good omens, he struggled through the opening phase of the match. Numerous lapses in concentration disrupted his rhythm and the world number three made 21 avoidable errors in the first round.
At an inopportune moment, Zverev also lost his greatest strength. He literally invited his opponent in with a weak service game. Garin, who had won two of the last three matches against the favorite and once again really annoyed Zverev, made it 1:0.
After a toilet break, the Tokyo Olympic champion returned to the court and remembered what had made him strong recently. He put the world number 109 under pressure with an attacking game and solid groundstrokes. However, it remained a brief high: As Garín was now allowing himself too many mistakes, Zverev still managed to take the second set, but shortly afterwards he conceded the next two breaks.
Zverev grumbled about the stringing of his racket, struggled with the box – but he finally pulled himself together and fought his way back. After three breaks in a row, he shouted out his joy. Zverev will be able to get over his extremely bumpy start if things improve soon. The aim is to get rolling over the course of the tournament and reach his top form by the end of May at the latest. Then the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year, is coming up.