It is difficult to venture a balanced judgment on the man Alexander Zverev, but he is certainly a formidable tennis player. Today on the court of the Louis Armstrong Stadium he regulated in four sets one of the surprises of the US Open, the Californian Brandon Nakashima, annihilating him with power combined with intelligence. My most attentive readers already know that, regardless of who will be the champion of the US Open 2024, from September 9 the German will officially be the number 2 in the world behind Jannik Sinner. This is a result resulting from his continuity of performance: since the beginning of the season, Sascha has lifted the trophy in Rome, reached the final at Roland Garros and Hamburg, made the semi-finals in Melbourne, Los Cabos, Miami, Halle and Cincinnati. Today he collected the handful of points missing to qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin, where until now only the South Tyrolean had a guaranteed place.
And yet, although the New York public likes him and his admirers are legion, something prevents Zverev from becoming a universal hero, as Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer still are – absit iniuria verbis. The fact that he has been through a lot does not help either, because the events that arouse compassion are accompanied by other very controversial ones. Let’s see them. In 2001, he was four years old when the doctors explained to his parents that he was (and would always be) suffering from type 1 diabetes. His father, a former tennis player who had represented the USSR in the Davis Cup, and his mother decided not to tell their eldest son Michail, known as Misha, who was then a great promise of German tennis. Being a genetic disorder, type 1 diabetes can only be treated with the multiple daily intake of insulin, which the body does not produce. For life: for this reason Alexander sometimes injects it during matches.
In recent years, the Hamburg phenomenon has also been in the news for serious events both related to his profession and of a personal nature. On June 3, 2022, on the court of the Philippe-Chatrier stadium, Alexander was trying to stop Rafael Nadal in the semifinals, who at 36 years old wanted to confirm himself as king of Paris for the fourteenth time. At 6 all in the second set, in the tie break during a lateral shift he collapsed screaming. He tried to get up but realized that his right foot was dangling due to the tearing of all three lateral ligaments of his ankle. He returned to the circuit late in the 2023 season. Three months ago, on June 7, Alexander was ready to take the court and play against Casper Ruud for entry to the Roland Garros final. A cell phone rang. Shortly after, one of his staff informed him that the Berlin court had just closed, following an out-of-court financial settlement, the case of the accusations of physical abuse launched by his ex-partner Brenda Patea, the mother of his son. It was a relief for Sascha, who came from behind to beat the Norwegian 2-6 6-2 6-4 6-2. But stories like that leave their mark.
Let’s get to today. In the first set Nakashima shows the enormous progress he has made since Davide Sanguinetti has been coaching him. Very fast, precise, indomitable, he offers the fun and effective game that allowed him to eliminate his more or less peers Holger Rune, Arthur Cazaux and Lorenzo Musetti this week. Sascha fights but surrenders at the end of a fifteen-point game: 3-6. He takes a breath and then gives a lesson in three periods to the twenty-three-year-old from San Diego, who only manages to take the game on five occasions: 6-1 6-2 6-2. In the quarterfinals, on Tuesday, Zverev’s opponent will be another home favorite, Taylor Fritz: certainly not the right time to count on a favorable flow of empathy.
On the first day without Italians in the singles tournaments, in order not to lose their good habits, the large Italian fans at Flushing Meadows dedicate themselves to the Bolelli-Vavassori pairs and, later, Errani-Vavassori. The Bolognese and the Turin native leave the scene with honor, in the indispensable 10-set tie break after the three regular sets were tied (6-4 3-6 6-6). The German super-specialists Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz quickly take off and do not let themselves be overtaken (10-4). Sara and Wave, number 3 seeds in the mixed pair, instead earn passage to the quarterfinals by beating the Americans Maria Mateas and Mackenzie McDonald 6-2 6-3. The Italians are therefore still in the running in three of the five tournaments, the two singles with Sinner and Paolini and, indeed, the mixed pair. For now, let’s not complain.
#Zverev #wins #warms #hearts
– 2024-09-09 02:51:23
