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For the first time since 1994, a German tennis player is in the final of the US Open. 26 years after Michael Stich, Alexander Zverev reached the first Grand Slam final of his career and there he met a good friend from Austria.
Despite a 2-0 deficit in sets in the semifinals, tennis player Alexander Zverev reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. At the US Open in New York, the 23-year-old from Hamburg won an exciting and initially bizarre five-set match against Pablo Carreño Busta of Spain in 3:22 hours 3: 6, 2: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4, 6: 3.
Seventh in the world rankings was the first German tennis player since Michael Stich in 1994 to reach the final at Flushing Meadows. The last winner of the German tournament at the US Open was Boris Becker in 1989. The three-time Wimbledon champion particularly emphasized the mental performance of Zverev, who recovered from a 2-0 deficit in sets for the first time in his young career. I was worried after two sentences. He then left the field, but came back in a different way. Then he had a different body language. In general, he was very calm even in the critical phases, “Becker told Eurosport and emphasized:” It is incredible what a mentality monster Alexander Zverev has become. “
Zverev: “I didn’t even know what was going on”
Zverev is the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Novak Djokovic at the US Open ten years ago and the first German in the final since Rainer Schüttler 17 years ago at the Australian Open. “I couldn’t believe it when I lost 2-0. He didn’t even know what was going on. But I’m in my first Grand Slam final, that’s the most important thing, ”said Zverev. “I couldn’t be happier, but there is still a step to go.”
The game had started miserably. The world number 27 passed to 1: 3. from Gijón in the first set Zverev played the service game. When the German’s backhand landed on the net at 40 minutes, the first round was decided. In the second set it got even worse: Zverev received a break in the first game. He struggled, but former top ten Carreño Busta knew the best answer to everything and played solid and calm. After 85 minutes, Zverev was 0-2 behind in sets and looked as good as on the way to “John F. Kennedy” airport.
He turned the game with mental strength
“When I was 3: 6, 2: 6 behind, I thought, I can’t finish a Grand Slam semifinal like this,” Zverev said. “I didn’t have a chance, I played badly.” After losing the second set, he left the seat and came back completely transformed. He got stronger now, played with more precision and made fewer mistakes.
With the set win at 6: 3, hope sprouted again. In the fourth round it was briefly unpleasant when Carreño Busta hit a hard ball directly into Zverev’s body with a score of 3: 5. The Spaniard immediately apologized, but Zverev looked over the net with a mixture of incomprehension and irreconciliation. . “Well, it’s part of the game, but he had the whole field free in front of him,” Zverev said later. With an ace he used his fourth set to tie it 2-2.
Before the fifth round, Carreño Busta had to receive treatment on his back and took a three-minute medical break. Zverev took advantage of this weak phase and immediately went ahead 1-0 with a break. Zverev left the first ball unused a bit later, then a backhand from the Spaniard landed in the net.
Now wait for the grand final against Buddy Thiem
In Sunday’s final, the seventh in the world rankings will face his good friend Dominic Thiem in a new edition of the semi-finals of this year’s Australian Open. The 27-year-old Austrian won his semi-final against Russian Daniil Medvedev 6: 2, 7: 6 (9: 7), 7: 6 (7: 5). In Melbourne, Zverev had reached a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time, but lost to Thiem before the tour was cut short for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. “I am happy of course, but the work is not done yet,” Zverev told ARD radio. «I want to win another game and that will be the most difficult. But I’m ready. “
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