Fighting back: After a challenging year, Zverev is only now threatening to look like the player that he was. | Getty Images
For Alexander Zverev, Saturday’s thrilling four-set victory over World No.12 Frances Tiafoe in the French Open third round was important in more ways than one. It was exactly 12 months ago that he had limped off Court Phillipe-Chatrier in tears after having hurt his ankle badly in the semifinal against Rafael Nadal.
The German was No.3 in the world and was playing the best tennis of his life, having outclassed Carlos Alcaraz in four sets in the quarterfinal and matched Nadal shot for shot until that fateful incident. Trailing 6-7(8), 6-6, his feet got stuck in the clay on a damp and humid evening in Paris, bringing to a shuddering halt a season that had promised much.
After returning to action in Australia at the start of 2023 – where he seemed severely undercooked – it is only now that the 2020 US Open finalist is threatening to look like the player he was a year ago. The gutsy win over Tiafoe marked a joyous anniversary of that gruesome Friday and it was also the first time he had beaten a top-15 opponent since Roland-Garros 2022.
“I’m happy to be through and be in the second week of a Grand Slam,” Zverev said in his post-match presser. “It’s, for sure, a great thing for me right now. I know what happened last year. It was emotional for me to step on that court for the first time when I played [Alex] Molcan, I’m not going to lie. But now I’m here to play some of the best players in the world, and today was definitely the case.”
‘1000km away’
Such optimism would have felt misplaced even as recently as a month ago. After his loss to Daniil Medvedev in the round-of-16 at the Rome Masters, Zverev felt he was a “1000km away” from even a decent level of tennis. “I just don’t win. I’m out earlier than I had hoped,” he told Sky Deutschland.
“I have to win and then that will solve [a lot of problems]. I don’t know what to say anymore. At the moment this year, I’m probably playing the worst tennis since 2015, 2016.”
It was worrying that Zverev’s despair came on clay, a surface that has been hospitable in the past. Three of his five ATP Masters 1000 titles have come on the dirt (Rome 2017, Madrid 2018 & 2021) and he has reached the quarterfinal or better in four of the five French Open editions starting 2018, a record he has at no other Major.
Like Medvedev, Zverev is a big-serving counter-puncher,…
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