It’s already over for the Hamburg native in the mixed doubles competition—despite the withdrawal of his prominent male opponent. Now the focus is on the singles.
Germany’s tennis star Alexander Zverev made only a brief appearance in the reformed mixed doubles competition at the US Open. In the round of 16, the Hamburg native and his Swiss partner Belinda Bencic lost 0-4, 3-5 to the US duo Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison.
Three days after Zverev lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals in Cincinnati, completely exhausted, the Hamburg native still lacked his spark.
Zverev and Bencic often poorly coordinated
Zverev and Bencic have known each other since childhood, and both won Olympic gold medals in Tokyo in 2021. The well-established “dream team” was supposed to play in the controversial mixed doubles competition in the opening match against Italy’s world number one Jannik Sinner and Czech Katerina Siniakova, but Sinner withdrew for health reasons.
Collins and Harrison stepped in and mercilessly punished the mistakes of Zverev and Bencic, who were often poorly coordinated.
Full focus on the singles
For Zverev, the focus is now fully on the singles, which begins on Sunday. The 28-year-old is chasing his first Grand Slam title in New York, having shown improving form in Toronto and Cincinnati recently – but also revealing physical deficiencies in the hot temperatures, which manifested themselves in breathing and circulation problems.
The mixed competition, which had caused controversy in the run-up to the tournament, ends on Wednesday. The tournament has been modified and will be played over two days with only 16 teams. The nomination criteria have also been changed: in addition to the top players on the tour who qualified via their ranking, there were wild cards. Under these circumstances, there was practically no room for doubles experts like Laura Siegemund. The format, with plenty of stars and short sets of up to four on Tuesday, was met with enthusiasm by the fans.
