2023-11-13 23:23:00
Alexander Zverev spread his arms laughing and waved freely to the Turin audience: The Olympic champion caused a big surprise at the start of the ATP Finals and disenchanted Carlos Alcaraz.
The 26-year-old from Hamburg defeated the second-seeded Wimbledon winner from Spain 6:7 (3:7), 6:3, 6:4 and decisively opened the door to the semi-finals. Even a fall in the third set didn’t throw Zverev out of his rhythm.
The tournament winner from 2018 and 2021, who beat Alcaraz with brutal service and a better balance of risk and safety, will face the Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev in the group phase. The top two make it to the semi-finals.
“My serve helped me a lot,” said Zverev in the oncourt interview: “I’m happy with the turnaround. It’s always great to beat the best players in the world – and he’s one of them.” In total, Zverev scored 16 aces and scored a strong 79 percent of the time when the first serve came.
Zverev slips: memories of Paris are awakened
Zverev, who caused the shocking moment in the third set and briefly evoked memories of his horror injury in Paris in the audience, started the prestigious end of the year as a clear outsider. Participation in itself can be seen as a success in the comeback year after the serious foot injury.
Alexander Zverev slips away against Carlos Alcaraz
Photo credit: Image
“I simply enjoy being among the eight best players in the world and being able to compete with them,” he said before the start at the Pala Alpitour, knowing that the tournament suits him – hard court, indoors without external wind influences, two winning sets.
He also proved this against Alcaraz, who had clearly shown the German top player’s limits twice this season. The current world number seven from Germany did not win a set in both the round of 16 of the Masters in Madrid and the quarter-finals of the US Open.
In Turin, however, Zverev created his chances right from the start with a strong serve and an initially lower error rate than Alcaraz – but then missed four break points when the score was 3:3. Then the Spaniard, who had been a bit weak in recent months, was suddenly there and showed his class. In the tiebreak he secured the first set.
Alcaraz makes a lot of mistakes – Zverev bites
At the beginning of the second round, Alcaraz lost his sovereignty again, made simple mistakes (33 unforced errors in total) and Zverev quickly moved away to 3-0. With three aces in one game he finally sealed the set win. After a break to make it 3-2 in the decisive section, Zverev slipped unhappily and briefly grimaced. Alcaraz immediately came over and asked about the hamburger’s well-being.
He gave the thumbs up and then gave the all-clear. “I didn’t twist my ankle. I slipped and felt a pull in my Achilles tendon. It was an annoying pain, but I don’t think anything was broken. It’s nothing compared to Paris 2022.”
At least he didn’t show anything in the match, kept his nerve and celebrated the success.
Zverev now has a day off on Tuesday before things get serious again on Wednesday. Instead, the parallel group with Novak Djokovic is now required again, the Serb will meet the South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner on Tuesday evening (9 p.m. in the live ticker), and Stefanos Tsitsipas and Boris Becker’s protégé Holger Rune will compete in the afternoon (2:30 p.m.).
Zverev: “Always nice to beat the best players in the world”
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