Tennis Australian Open
Zverev’s confession after his rumbling victory
As of: 10:15 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Zverev seemed unfocused for a long time in his second match at Melbourne Park
Those: dpa/Alessandra Tarantino
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Alexander Zverev only averted an early exit at the Australian Open with great difficulty. The sixth in the tennis world rankings needs 4:30 hours to defeat a qualifier. In his thoughts, the German was already sitting on the plane home.
Alexander Zverev was asked what was going through his head when the game was once again on a knife’s edge. Well, he said after his upset win against Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein, he thought, “There’s a Qantas flight at eleven o’clock to Dubai and then on home.” He could almost have taken it.
The sixth in the world rankings was only able to avert an early exit with great effort. He won 7:5, 3:6, 4:6, 7:6 (7:5), 7:6 (10:7) and moved into the third round of the first Grand Slam tournament of the season. In the fight for a place in the round of 16, he will face Alex Michelsen from the USA on Saturday. The 26-year-old scored his first match point against Klein after 4:30 hours.
“I would have preferred to win in an hour and a half, but he played incredibly well. I didn’t know what to do for a long time,” said Zverev after the marathon match. “He deserved more to win today. But that’s how it is sometimes in tennis,” admitted the German number one.
Zverev checked his blood sugar level again and again
Zverev appeared unfocused and sleepy for a long time in his second appearance at Melbourne Park this year. He is known for not being particularly fond of early starts in tournaments. He also acted without energy and emotion for a long time against Klein. Zverev, who suffers from diabetes, repeatedly checked his blood sugar level during the break. Zverev didn’t really seem at his best.
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Nevertheless, he was not initially in serious danger. After 50 minutes, Zverev took the first set without playing any good tennis. That didn’t change subsequently. Klein recognized this and became more and more courageous as the game went on. The world number 163 very often duped Zverev, who was inexplicably far behind the baseline, with stops.
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He took the serve from Zverev to make it 4:2. Due to a brief shower, the roof over the John Cain Arena was closed a short time later. But even the short interruption did not ensure that Zverev returned to the pitch more awake and focused. Klein managed to equalize the set and took the service from Zverev again right at the beginning of the third round. The German number one accepted all of this in a strangely emotionless manner. Klein now played better and better and took the lead with 2:1 sets.
Struff fails by the narrowest of margins
Zverev was on the verge of elimination in the fourth set. When the score was 4:4, he had to fend off a break point and escaped into the tiebreak. There too he kept his nerve and managed to equalize the set. The Hamburg native shouted his joy loudly. When Zverev took serve from the Slovakian at the beginning of the fifth round, he seemed to have the game under control.
But even in this situation, Zverev failed to take the initiative. He gave up his serve to make it 3-3. Klein had long since worked himself into a bit of a frenzy and was constantly encouraged by the spectators. The decision had to be made in the tiebreak, where Klein finally lost his nerve.
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Jan-Lennard Struff, on the other hand, narrowly missed making it into the third round for the first time. The 33-year-old from Warstein lost to the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 4:6, 6:1, 6:7 (5:7), 6:1, 6:7 (9:11). Struff had to admit defeat after 3:21 hours in a thrilling game. The Davis Cup professional missed two match points in the tiebreak of the fifth set. This makes Zverev the last remaining German tennis professional in Melbourne.
Tatjana Maria was the last German player to be eliminated on Thursday. The 36-year-old clearly lost to number 26 seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini 2:6, 3:6. Angelique Kerber and qualifier Ella Seidel had previously failed in the first round and Laura Siegemund and Tamara Korpatsch in the second round.
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