Zverev is running out of time: tried 34 times, 34 times nothing happened

The opportunity seemed huge after the early exits of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz – but Alexander Zverev also missed out on his first Grand Slam title at the US Open. He rarely seemed as clueless and helpless as he did after the four-set defeat to the American Taylor Fritz, but one approach to the solution lies with him.

US Open, French Open, Wimbledon, Australian Open. These four tournaments all have their own special features. Not only the court surfaces are sometimes sandy and red, sometimes hard and blue, or sometimes green, changing to grey at the end of the grass week.

All venues have their own magic and their own history. But the story that connects Alexander Zverev with New York, Paris, Melbourne and London has now repeated itself far too often.

Zverev: Five-set defeats against Thiem and Alcaraz

The 27-year-old Zverev has been in the main draw of one of these four Grand Slams 34 times, and 34 times there was a winner other than him at the end of the two weeks of the tournament. Since 2015 he has been eliminated in the first round four times, in the second round four times, in the third round seven times, and in the round of 16 just as often. He reached the quarterfinals four times and the semifinals six times. He reached the final twice.

In his debut in a Grand Slam final four years ago at the US Open against Dominic Thiem, he was only two points away from the longed-for triumph. This year he eliminated Rafael Nadal in Paris, but lost the final against Alcaraz in five sets.

22 tournament victories – tennis pro Zverev has no losing record

Did he lack the winning gene in general? Certainly not. Zverev won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 and has also won the important ATP Masters twice. He has already celebrated 22 tournament victories in total and won more than 45 million euros in prize money alone. Despite his defeat against Fritz, he could move up from fourth place in the world rankings to second place after the tournament. That is not the record of a loser. And he can play world class on any surface.

The man from Hamburg is not lacking in self-criticism either. Perhaps he is even beating himself up too much, because as often as he used the word “terrible” in describing his performance against Fritz, the whole thing was actually not as “bottomless” as he called it: His backhand seemed unusually flat, but in the end only two tiebreaks tipped the scales against him.

Acapulco did not repeat itself

Zverev can also fight, even harder than before after his serious ligament injury at the French Open 2022. He has also become more disciplined, and a complete outburst like beating a referee’s chair and subsequent exclusion from the tournament a good two years ago in Acapulco has not been repeated.

But perhaps the way he deals with his bitter defeats is also an explanation. The pressure he puts on himself to finally break this Grand Slam curse is getting higher and higher each time.

“I’ll be 28 next year and I still don’t have any of these titles, I’m not interested in anything else”he struggles with himself. But as banal as it sounds, others have also broken their curses at some point, of course not all of them – like Boris Becker, who never won a professional tournament on clay.

There were even older Grand Slam debutants

But Novak Djokovic, for example, fulfilled his Olympic dream this year at the age of 37 and won gold for Serbia. The Swiss Stan Wawrinka was almost 29 years old when he won his first Grand Slam title in 2014, winning the Australian Open.

Croatian Goran Ivanisevic started at the age of 30 when he triumphed at Wimbledon in 2001, and he too had a major title behind him a decade ago. Given these examples, it might be a good idea for Alexander Zverev to perhaps put a little less stress on himself.