It was not until 2:35 a.m. that Alexander Zverev converted the match point to reach the round of 16 at the US Open. Another top favorite as a possible opponent on the way to the title failed.
Even after his exhausting night shift, Alexander Zverev was still in a joking mood and celebrated his late entry into the round of 16 of the US Open with the remaining fans. The 27-year-old defeated the Argentinian Tomás Martin Etcheverry 5:7, 7:5, 6:1, 6:3 and only converted the match point at 2:35 a.m. New York time. Only one game in the history of the Grand Slam tournament had ended later.
“Thank you all for staying so long,” Zverev said to fans in the winner’s interview and joked. “It’s a Friday night in New York. To be honest, if I had a free Friday night in New York, I would be somewhere else right now.”
Zverev celebrated his 100th win in a match at one of the four biggest tournaments of the season. He is the first player born after 1990 to reach this mark. “It was so much fun to play. I’m just happy to have moved on,” said Zverev.
The 2021 Olympic tennis champion will now face American Brandon Nakashima in the round of the best 16. The 23-year-old defeated Italian Lorenzo Musetti in four sets, who had ended Zverev’s dream of another Olympic gold medal in the quarterfinals in Paris.
After Alcaraz, Djokovic also fails
On the way to his first Grand Slam title, another top favorite has already been eliminated after Carlos Alcaraz. Novak Djokovic lost to the Australian Alexei Popyrin in the third round with 4:6, 4:6, 6:2, 4:6 and was thus eliminated earlier than at any other US Open since 2006.
“It was a terrible match from me,” said the 37-year-old Serb, dismayed. “At times I played my worst tennis ever, served worse than ever.” This means that the 24-time Grand Slam tournament winner remains without a triumph at one of the four biggest tournaments for the first time since 2017.
Barely a month after his triumph at the Olympics in Paris, Djokovic was far from the brilliant form he showed when he beat Alcaraz in the final. “I spent a lot of energy trying to win gold and arrived in New York without feeling mentally or physically fresh,” he said. Before that, world number three Alcaraz from Spain had already surprisingly lost in the second round to Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
Zverev could have met Djokovic in the semifinals at the earliest, while Alcaraz would have been a possible finalist opponent.
Zverev’s match starts shortly before 11 p.m.
Zverev entered the court at the Louis Armstrong Stadium at 10:51 p.m. local time. The previous matches had lasted so long that the Hamburg native only opened his match with his first serve shortly before eleven. In the very first point, Zverev requested video evidence because he mistakenly believed that the ball had not touched the ground twice on his side.
The opening match was also bumpy in other respects. Zverev conceded the first break with a backhand error. His game was characterized by far too many inaccuracies, and he made a total of 23 minor errors in the first set.
15 minutes away from the record
Zverev stabilized himself and won the equally close second set. After a conversation with his brother Mischa during Etcheverry’s toilet break, Zverev played increasingly stronger. Again and again he successfully sought his way to the net and, as so often, seemed to crack his opponent with his outstanding physique.
But Etcheverry initially got over his exhausting five-set match in the second round. Two days earlier, in much higher temperatures, he had even vomited on the court.
The fourth set became more exciting again. At 2:3, Zverev fended off three break points in a row. In the following game, however, the 2020 finalist took his opponent’s serve with a volley and was able to celebrate a short time later. Only 15 minutes were missing from the latest match to finish at the US Open: in 2022, Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner from Italy in the quarterfinals at 2:50 a.m.
Source: Stern
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