Alexander Zverev did not break the record for the latest end to a match at the French Open. But it was well after midnight when he ended the match at the Roland Garros tennis facility, at 1:40 a.m. with a final smash. Zverev, 27, has now reached the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament for the sixth time in his career. The only question is how much energy this new felt ball marathon on clay cost him. He said he was happy to “have gotten away with it again.”
Zverev has now gone the full distance twice in a row in Paris: he needed five sets on Monday evening to defeat the furiously playing 21-year-old Dane Holger Rune, 4:6, 6:1, 5:7, 7:6 (2), 6:2. He had also beaten the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in the third round on Saturday in a five-set match. In total, as he himself calculated, that’s eight and a half hours of pure playing time in just over two days. The most important thing is to get to the hotel and to bed as quickly as possible in order to regenerate, said Zverev when he appeared before the journalists in the interview zone of Court Philippe-Chartier long after the end of the match. It was already half past two in the morning. And some of the questions, especially from the Australian reporters, were already directed at his next opponent, Alex de Minaur, who will be waiting for him on the other side of the net for another ball storm on Wednesday.
:Farewell the hard way
A final wave after the first-round defeat? The Spaniard is not making it that easy for himself. Rafael Nadal is still the old warhorse – and wants to give it his all again at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
Grand Slam tennis tournaments are hard work for the world’s best players, of which Zverev has been one for years: a constant strain on the body and mind, because seven matches are needed to reach the final. It is therefore advisable to minimize the strain whenever possible, and Zverev has now missed these opportunities again – in an admittedly heroic way. Because getting yourself out of trouble brilliantly again and again is something you have to be able to do first.
In the match against the clever Rune, Zverev missed two thirds of his break chances, although he smashed no fewer than 16 aces at the feet of his six-year-younger opponent and served flawlessly throughout. However, he lost too many games due to minor errors.
Zverev has won 22 of 24 tiebreaks at the French Open
Three hours had already been played when three-time semi-finalist Zverev finally found the dominance that was enough to break the impetuous Dane’s resistance. When the fourth set came down to a tiebreak, he remained calm and patiently collected point after point, even after long rallies. In fact, Zverev’s tiebreak statistics at the French Open, which he has traveled to every year since 2016, are a model in themselves: he has won 22 of the 24 shootouts. “I’ve been on the tour for a bit longer,” he said, “so experience helps.” In the fifth set, he had little trouble with Rune – and thus kept his chance of winning the title, despite the tiredness in his bones.
Rune, just six days older than Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, has had a similarly meteoric rise to the Spaniard. Last year he was already number four in the world before losing more often than he would have liked. He parted ways with his long-time coach, worked with Boris Becker for four months, then brought on board the former coach of Serena Williams and Simona Halep, the Frenchman Patrick Mouratogou. Judging by his performance against Zverev, he is now on the way back.
The fact that the match ended in the middle of the night was not only due to the endurance of these two rivals or Zverev’s tardiness in taking advantage of the best ball-conversion opportunities. The match did not begin until 9:30 p.m. because defending champion Novak Djokovic, 37, had to survive a five-set drama on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The 24-time Grand Slam winner from Serbia struggled through injury to reach the quarterfinals, beating Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo 6:1, 7:5, 6:3, 5:7, 6:3, although he was barely able to get to a ball at one point.
Djokovic injures his knee – diagnosis unclear
At the beginning of the second set, the world number one slipped on the clay and sprained his knee. He was treated and given painkillers, and in the fourth set, when the medication took effect, he caught up. In the fifth set, after another fall, he secured his 370th match win at Grand Slam tournaments, overtaking the Swiss Roger Federer in this statistic.
He left open whether the three-time French Open winner will be able to compete in the quarter-finals against last year’s finalist Casper Ruud. “I survived. I won,” he said. “Will I be able to play? I don’t know.” Djokovic only finished his third-round match at Roland Garros early on Sunday morning at 3:07 a.m. – an inglorious record in the history of the tournament. For Djokovic, too, this French Open has been an ordeal so far.