Alexander Zverev started the tournament week in Munich with a concise statement that nobody debated. “It’s cold,” said Zverev at the opening of his press conference on Sunday, and it stayed cold on Monday, which is why you could watch the 25-year-old training in a thermal shirt and thermal trousers. Against his sparring partner, the Chilean Christian Garin, Zverev warmed up for a tournament where it is cold on the outside, but which now also offers a warm atmosphere for a native of Hamburg. Zverev has won the BMW Open twice in the past nine years, but never in such late winter conditions as he noted. And never before under such conditions.
Zverev brought a debate home from Monte Carlo that has been going on for five days and, in a figurative sense, is also about heat and cold. He called Russian Daniil Medvedev one of the “most unfair players on the tour” in an interview with Sky broadcaster last Thursday, twenty minutes after losing a close match against him. Medvedev, 27, disappeared into the toilet in the third set, interacted with the audience again and again between points and at one point removed a net post. It helped him in that Zverev was impressed by the games and narrowly lost the third set in the tie-break (7: 9). As it turned out, the duel on the tennis court was only the prelude anyway.
Medvedev countered at a press conference the next day and advised the absent Zverev that he should “rather look in the mirror”. The German is also a player who would provoke the opponent with his uniqueness, which in turn Zverev refuted on Sunday in Munich by stating that he had never resorted to (tactical) toilet breaks and spectator debates in his entire career: “I win and lose too Tennis.” However, he did not want to take back the criticism he had voiced about Medvedev in the heat of the moment.
“If he wants to talk to me, he’s welcome to talk to me,” says Zverev
An answer to the last comment is still pending – as of Monday afternoon – Zverev and Medvedev could have clarified the debate on the phone. Even in Russian, the language they used to speak at youth tournaments. At that time they were good friends, recalled Medvedev, who by his own admission no longer has much to do with Zverev. According to Zverev, this is mutual. However, they already have each other’s phone numbers: “If he wants to talk to me, he’s welcome to talk to me,” said Zverev.
“What Daniil did was within the rules,” says Alexander’s Zverev’s brother Mischa about the incidents in Monte Carlo.
(Photo: Eric Gaillard/Reuters)
Disputes about fairness and unfairness are anything but a new-fangled phenomenon in tennis. Tournament director Patrick Kühnen and Alexanders Zverev’s brother Mischa had several examples ready at the tournament’s opening press conference on Friday; Among other things, they addressed Brad Gilbert’s standard work on the subject: “Winning Ugly” is what the former professional Gilbert called his book about psychological warfare between the baseline and the net, which apparently is still popular among tennis professionals today.
Mischa Zverev even admitted that he found Medvedev’s provocation in the match questionable but not too bad: “What Daniil did was within the rules. Would Roger Federer have acted similarly? Probably not. Stefan Edberg? Probably no. Brad Gilbert? Probably yes. That’s part of the sport.”
It is the last step that Zverev is still missing after his return to the top of the world
This is a realization that likes to mature after the end of their careers, from which both Zverev and Medvedev are still a long way away. A lot of the highly jazzed argument has to do with dogmatism and the will to win, two qualities that drive Medvedev in particular to play with words and tennis rackets at the same time: He would probably also claim that the tennis weather in Munich was wonderful if it would help him to defeat his opponent.
Zverev, on the other hand, was open to self-criticism, at least as far as sport was concerned. He could have finished the match against Medvedev himself, with better tennis at the right time – and he “must start winning games like this again at some point”. It’s the last step that Zverev is still missing on his return to the top of the world, which is going well eleven months after his serious ankle injury in Paris, but no more. “If I’m in top form, I’ll win the match in two sets, 6: 3 and 6: 4,” said Zverev looking back at Monte Carlo.
“He really wants to win again against a top 10 player,” said brother Mischa, who metaphorically expressed Zverev’s situation in comparisons with the best in the world: Alexander had “the key in his hand”, but still had to go through the door. In Munich, there is no chance of doing so until the semi-finals: Zverev could meet Holger Rune during the week, the young Norwegian at number seven in the world rankings, who only lost to Andrey Rublew in the final on the Cote d’Azur.