tennis
by Bettina Lenner
Alexander Zverev created the sensation and reaches for gold at the Olympic tennis tournament. On Friday (July 30th, 2021) in the semifinals against Novak Djokovic from the middle of the second set, the Hamburger grew beyond himself and defeated the Serb with 1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 1.
When the great deed was done after a little more than two hours and a crazy race to catch up, Zverev buried his face between his fists, slumped on his knees and could not hold back the tears. Defeated the apparently indomitable number one in the world and made history: The 24-year-old has won the first German Olympic medal in men’s singles for 21 years. Most recently, Tommy Haas won silver in Sydney in 2000.
Germany’s number one is now reaching for the first German gold in the men’s singles and meets Karen Khachanov in the final on Sunday. The world number 25. from the Russian Olympic Committee, which prevailed 6: 3, 6: 3 against Pablo Carreno-Busta in the first semifinals, has never made it past the quarter-finals at the Grand Slam tournaments.
Insane comeback from the middle of the second set
Djokovic will face the Spaniard Carreno-Busta in the battle for bronze on Saturday. The Serb had only lost three matches this season and was preparing to be the first since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win the Golden Slam with all four triumphs in the majors and in the Olympics.
At first it didn’t look like Zverev could prevent that. The world number five seemed to be on the losing track in the duel between the two top stars when he unpacked his best tennis. He was already 1: 6, 2: 3 behind when Djokovic served before he took over the match and even duped the world’s best tennis player in places.
Djokovic at the beginning like a well-oiled machine
Zverev was desperate to Djokovic until the middle of the second set. He played well, but not well enough to seriously endanger the world number one. The bat flew in frustration. When he conceded the break to 2: 3 after losing the first round in not so hot, but again oppressively humid weather, the Hamburger carried the ball into the sky of Tokyo and out of the stadium. Who could blame him, the Djokovic machine was running – and the German was desperate.
Full of anger on the road to success
But the anger was good, with crashing blows and absolute risk he got the re-break and then his service game to zero. Now the 24-year-old played as uninhibited and flawlessly as it was necessary to get the Serbs into trouble. With merciless winners he got the next break to 5: 3 and finally the sentence: Now something was going!
Zverev plays flawlessly
Especially since Zverev took up his counterparty again at the start of the decisive round with his third break in a row. With his own service, he kept his nerve, fended off several breakballs – 2-0. The 20-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic tried to bring the Germans out of the rhythm with stops and network attacks, but Zverev was not deterred. The Hamburger played flawlessly, served well – and in the end deservedly celebrated one of the greatest victories of his career.