Zverev’s resurrection in 460 days: from breaking his ankle to the US Open quarterfinals
The American tour began in Toronto with Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev challenging each other with golf clubs. Five weeks later, Spaniard and German will meet in New York, this time with a racket, to decide who will have one of the tickets for the US Open semifinals.
” I think it is disrespectful to others to assume that Alcaraz and Djokovic are predestined to play the final here, “Sascha said at the beginning of the tournament.
The tennis player from Hamburg has earned his share of prominence after reaching the quarterfinals after defeating Jannik Sinner, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6 and 6-3.
The 4 hours and 41 minutes made the match the longest of this edition, but far from the historical record held by the 1992 semifinal between Edberg and Michael Chang. That duel lasted 5 hours and 26 minutes. While Zverev won at 1:39 in the morning on Tuesday, Alcaraz had been resting for hours in the rooms of his Palace hotel, in the heart of Manhattan.
The Murcian, who noticed some minor discomfort in the second set of his third round match with Daniel Evans, saw from the sidelines a tennis massacre that benefited him.
His opponent in the quarterfinals has just risen from the ashes after a year wandering around the circuit after breaking his ankle ligaments in the 2022 Roland Garros semifinal against Rafael Nadal. It took him seven months to reappear after a failed attempt in the Davis Cup playoffs in September.
“You can say that I’m back,” he dared to say at the conclusion of the marathon with the Italian Sinner. The unexpected protagonist of the confrontation was a fan who shouted in perfect German: Deutschland über alles (Germany above all). “You have just said Hitler’s most famous words. This is unacceptable,” Zverev informed the chair umpire. He turned around and asked for the people’s collaboration to identify the individual. He was quickly ejected from the stands. “I am German, but we are not proud of this part of our history,” he added later.
Orphan of a great
Sascha, champion of 20 titles, including two ATP Finals and the gold medal at the Tokyo Games, is eluding the crown of a Grand Slam.
He stood in a final once, and it was three years ago at the US Open, with a loss to Dominik Thiem. Sinner chokes on agonizing duels. He has lost all of the five longest matches he has played, including the quarterfinal match of the last edition with Alcaraz, which lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes.
The Spanish schoolThe German dominates the head-to-head with Carlitos by three wins to two. They both know each other. The first had Juan Carlos Ferrero, current number one coach, as coach. And then he opted for other Spanish technicians: David Ferrer and Sergi Bruguera. He was with Ferrer when he reached the final of the US Open, and he broke his professional relationship with Bruguera in May.
Alcaraz and Zverev took the day off before meeting this early morning.