WHAT HAPPENED: Since reaching his career-high ranking of No. 3 in 2017, Germany’s Alexander Zverev has been touted as the next big champion in men’s tennis. Three years later, he has finally broken through to his first Grand Slam final, dismissing Pablo Carreno Busta, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, to advance to the championship round of the 2020 US Open.
This was the first time in his career that Zverev has fought back from two sets down to win a match. And he picked the perfect time to do it, playing a more aggressive game that saw him strike 71 winners (including 24 aces) and 57 unforced errors.
It was a long way to victory for Zverev, who had to overcome a listless start through the first two sets. For the first 90 minutes of play, the German appeared to be a shadow of himself compared to the fight and fire he displayed against Borna Coric in the quarterfinals. He struggled on serve and couldn’t gain an edge in the rallies, being broken in five of eight service games to fall behind two sets to love.
“I looked at the scoreboard, I'm down two sets to love in a Grand Slam semifinal. I knew I had to start playing better, to give myself a chance,” Zverev said of his performance. “I think in the first few sets, Pablo was the one dictating much more than I did. This is how the match slowly turned around. Even though for my size, I think I move okay, quite well. I'm still somebody that needs to be the aggressive one. This is what I started doing in the third set. The match slowly turned itself around.”
Zverev gained his first lead of the match early in the third after breaking Carreno Busta for a 3-1 edge. With his serving woes on the mend and his confidence gaining ground, Zverev held serve at love to close out the third set, 6-3.
A dip in Carreno Busta’s serve proved the difference late in the fourth set, allowing Zverev to break for a 5-3 lead and serve it out to force a deciding set.
As Carreno Busta began to fade, Zverev again broke the Spaniard to open the fifth, the 14th break of the match, and it was all the German needed to run away with the set and confirm his place in the 2020 US Open final.
“Even though I was down two sets to love, I stayed in it,” Zverev said of his mental toughness. “I gave myself the best chance I could. I think a lot of players would have gone away. Today I dug deep, dug very deep. At the end of the day, I'm sitting here as the winner of that match, which could have been very different.”
WHAT IT MEANS: With the win, Zverev puts his name in the record books as the first German Grand Slam men’s singles finalist since Rainer Schuettler at the 2003 Australian Open, as well as the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Novak Djokovic, 23, at the 2010 US Open.
This marks the third straight year Zverev has improved his US Open performance, having reached the second round in 2017, the third round in 2018, and the fourth round in 2019.
MATCH POINT: The 6-foot-6 Zverev has carved his way through to the final serving up 116 aces after six rounds of play. Can his serve hold true on the fast courts of the US Open long enough to earn him his first major title?
Watch highlights from the Carreno Busta-Zverev semifinal below
