Alexander Zverev had more trouble than expected against the American Tommy Paul. In the end he prevailed. One scene in particular in the second movement annoyed the Germans.
So far, Alexander “Sascha” Zverev hasn’t had too many problems with his opponents at the Australian Open. The 27-year-old from Hamburg dominated most of his duels in Melbourne. Things looked different against Tommy Paul from the USA. But in the end Zverev won 7:6, 7:6, 2:6, 6:1 and is now in the semi-finals.
The eleventh in the world rankings demanded everything from the German tennis star on this Tuesday afternoon on Center Court. The outside temperature in southern Australia showed 35 degrees. Zverev was already under pressure in the first set and was in danger of losing the first round. He suffered an early break but fought back and eventually won the tiebreak in world-class style.
The second movement was almost a copy of the first. Again Zverev found himself on the defensive, again he had to go to the tiebreak, where he once again prevailed with remarkable continuity and precisely timed baseline shots. During these critical periods he found an answer to almost everything Paul threw at him. The German only lost his nerve once.
It was 4:2 in the second set, Paul was on the defensive at 40:40 and his own serve, Zverev, it looked like, was about to score the point. Suddenly the chair umpire stopped the match. Out of the blue. Because from there a feather had flown onto the pitch and blocked the players’ view. At least that’s how the referee saw it.
Zverev got terribly upset. “Are you serious?” he hissed in the direction of the referee and spread his arms. “A million feathers are flying on the pitch,” added the second in the world rankings. But the referee stuck to it. Zverev no longer understood the world. He had already complained in the previous rally because he supposedly heard an “out” from one of the linesmen. But it didn’t help. The point was lost for Zverev. The game later also went to Paul.
In fact, when the stadium roof of the Rod Laver Arena is open, many birds find their way inside. There is a lot of air traffic over the stadium, especially in the evening hours. It can happen that a whole flock of birds makes themselves comfortable on the pillars of the roof ridges. Even later, bird feathers flew onto the blue hard court in the game between Zverev and Paul. This time, however, the referee did not intervene.
Zverev remained remarkably calm apart from the small banter with the referee. The fact that Paul played brilliantly at times and repeatedly pushed him far behind the baseline annoyed the German. But it didn’t faze him.
However, Paul failed to score the point in the crucial moments. Both at 6:5 in the first set, where he missed a good chance of winning the set, and at 5:4 in the second set, where the American once again missed what was actually a safe ball for the decisive break. In the end Zverev won. He said afterwards: “I don’t know how I did it. I should have been 2-0 down – he was better than me. The fourth set was definitely my best and I’m extremely happy to be back in the semi-finals stand.” On Friday he will meet world number three Carlos Alcaraz or top star Novak Djokovic.