The hangdog body language can be a little much at times.
Here’s an elite, 6-foot-6 power-player, after all, a guy whose on-court weaponry has made him a Top-10 bulwark the last three years and who has shown that he has the stuff to deliver on the biggest of stages. (See the 2018 ATP Finals, where he defeated both Roger Federer and No. 1 Novak Djokovic en route to the title.)
Yet 23-year-old Alexander Zverev, the rightful appointee to rekindle the once-proud Beckerian tradition of German tennis, at least on the men’s side, often looks as though he’s been tasked with shoveling the driveway or cleaning the gutters—petulant, going through the motions.
When Hall of Famer-turned-commentator Martina Navratilova questioned his tactics against Croatia's Borna Coric in the quarterfinals of the 2020 US Open, calling it “patty-cake tennis,” Zverev bristled, saying, “Maybe she should look at my record against the big guys. Maybe she should look that I’m positive against Roger. Maybe she should look that I’ve beaten Novak on multiple occasions in big matches and finals. And [now] I’m in the semifinals. Sometimes not playing your best and finding a way is more important than playing your best.”
Zverev had a point—one that would play out in his miraculous comeback from two sets down against Pablo Carreno Busta in the semis. It looked hopeless for the tri-lingual Hamburg native early on, as he trudged along the baseline, all but hailing a cab for transport back to the hotel. But to his credit, Zverev—the youngest Grand Slam finalist of the past decade—found a way to turn things around.
As he said himself, the No. 5 seed was the favorite against Carreno Busta. But here he was, trailing 6-3, 6-2, looking overmatched.
“I looked at the scoreboard,” he said. “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. I wanted to give myself, set by set, just the opportunity to stay in the match. That’s what I did. In the end, it turned out well for me.”
Somehow, despite the at-times-ugly tennis, Zverev came into the title match against No. 2 seed Dominic Thiem with a tournament-leading 116 aces, 167 first-serve points won, and 34 break points converted. Unfortunately, he also led the field in double faults (49) and his jittery second serve cost him points time and again.
Coming into Sunday’s final, Zverev had played six more sets and had been on the court nearly four hours longer than Thiem at the 2020 US Open. Only one of his six wins had come in straight sets.
However, he looked the fresher of the two combatants in the final, playing aggressive tennis and taking a seemingly commanding two-set lead. But Thiem would roar back to win in historic fashion, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6, becoming the first player to rally from two sets down in the final since Pancho Gonzalez in 1949. It was the first-ever US Open championship match to be decided in a fifth-set tiebreak.
It was a heartbreaking loss for the German, who was just points from victory. But while he has no trophy to show for it, Zverev’s first shot at a Grand Slam final will surely serve him well going forward.
That hangdog look was nowhere to be seen on Sunday in Flushing Meadows, as he kept his emotions in check, played an attacking game from the first ball, and put himself in a position to win.
It wasn’t until the awards ceremony that we saw much emotion at all from the world No. 7, as he thanked both his team and his family for sticking with him through some difficult years, when the expectations, the pressures weighed heavy. There was no holding back the tears. It was a side of Zverev that many of us had never seen before; a vanquished athlete left wanting more.
“I was super close to being a Grand Slam champion,” said Zverev, who was bidding to become only the second German US Open titlist in tournament history after Boris Becker in 1989. “I was a few games away, maybe a few points away…I'm 23 years old. I don't think it's my last chance.”
