In a one-sided final, Alexander Zverev has to bury his dream of his first major title in the 36th attempt. What he says after the match is remarkable.
Christoph Cöln reports from Melbourne
It didn’t work again. Alexander Zverev missed the title again at the Australian Open. This is slowly becoming a sad habit for the German. He has already reached for a Grand Slam trophy for the 36th time. Always in vain.
This time the Italian Jannik Sinner proved to be an insurmountable hurdle. He gave the German no chance at 6:3, 7:6, 6:3. Zverev also had to acknowledge that.
“It’s really annoying to stand here, right next to this thing and not be allowed to touch it. I was hoping that I could have been a better challenger today, but you were just too good,” said the 27-year-old from Hamburg after the event Match on Center Court at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
Immediately after match point, Zverev collapsed onto his bench on the sidelines and put his hands in front of his face. He sat there for minutes, his face hidden, unable to believe it. The challenger’s disappointment was deep. When he went to the winner’s podium a little later, his eyes were still wet. The first to comfort him was Sinner.
The defending champion took the defeated German in his arms and encouraged him. A nice gesture. Zverev could really use the encouragement. He was only rarely able to live up to his potential in this final. Too often he missed the right length in his baseline shots, he often ended his net attacks hastily and anyone who makes 45 avoidable errors against the world number one (Sinner: 27) needs a lot of luck to win.
But Zverev was missing that too that evening in Melbourne. He somehow suspected it after winning the semi-final against Novak Djokovic. He then said that he was incredibly happy to be in a big final again. “Maybe I’ll have a bit of luck this time too.”
He hadn’t. A ball in the tiebreak of the second set was emblematic of this. When the score was 4:4, the felt ball from Sinner’s racket hit the edge of the net – and from there dripped into the field, out of reach of Zverev. It was one of those moments where it became clear that the momentum really wasn’t on Zverev’s side. In addition to the lack of luck, the German also had bad luck. Something seemed to break in Zverev at that moment. The sentence was lost. Later also the whole match.
“Zverev’s dream destroyed,” the tabloid reporters typed into their computers minutes before the end of the game. Some of the spectators also left the arena early. It was too clear that Zverev would no longer be able to turn things around. The Italian was simply too strong. And Zverev seemed to be struggling too much with his own game and its shortcomings to be able to cause a surprise.
The evening before, the self-sacrificing Madison Keys had managed to do exactly this against the seemingly overwhelming series winner Aryna Sabalenka. Keys had grown beyond himself, Zverev had shrunk.
How much the world number two had shrunk in this final became clear after the final. “We’re really trying to do all the work,” Zverev said, turning to his team. It would have been an opportunity to thank his carers and say something conciliatory. Zverev, however, said: “But I’m just not good enough.”