Referreport
Completely exhausted, Alexander Zverev waved to the crowd once again after his dream of winning another Olympic gold medal had been shattered, before leaving the Paris tennis stadium in disillusionment. Exactly three years to the day after the coup in Tokyo, the best German tennis professional, handicapped by health problems, was defeated 5:7, 5:7 by the Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals in midsummer temperatures.
Afterwards, Zverev mourned the missed medal opportunity. “I’ve had defeats in my career that were more disappointing. But what is most disappointing is that the Olympic Games come once every four years,” said Zverev. After 2:04 hours, Wimbledon semi-finalist Musetti converted his first match point and destroyed Zverev’s hopes of triumphing at the Olympics for the second time.
Zverev feels “terrible”
After the match, the 27-year-old revealed physical problems that had limited him throughout the week. “I got tired really, really quickly every time and needed longer breaks,” reported Zverev. He felt “terrible” after one set against Musetti, explained the Hamburg native, and announced that he would have blood tests done in his adopted home of Monaco.
He doesn’t believe that the tiredness has anything to do with his diabetes. “Then you feel like you’re slower and you don’t feel like doing anything athletic,” Zverev said. After a while, he gets dizzy. “I see four balls coming at me and I feel like I really can’t do anything anymore.”
Once again, his body prevented him from achieving a big goal. At Wimbledon, Zverev felt better on grass than ever before in his career, before a knee injury severely limited his ability to play in the round of 16.
With the elimination of the last remaining participant, the German Tennis Association missed its minimum goal of one medal. Zverev had already lost his second chance at a medal in the mixed doubles competition with Laura Siegemund in the first round. The day before, Angelique Kerber was also eliminated in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles in her last career match.
In Tokyo, Zverev wrote German tennis history
Carried by the feeling of representing the entire nation, Zverev stormed through the Olympic tournament in Japan three years ago. Even Serbian top star Novak Djokovic did not stop the German tennis hopeful in the semifinals. On August 1, 2021, he became the first German tennis professional to celebrate gold in the men’s singles.
The organizers had scheduled his quarterfinal against Musetti for late afternoon, although unlike the Italian, he had only finished his round of 16 match in the evening. However, the short break did not play a decisive role, said Zverev.
As in the previous rounds, Zverev did not find his way into the match as hoped and – partly due to a double fault – lost his first service game to make it 0-1. At first he was unable to cope with the service of the world number 16 from Tuscany.
Zverev’s break deficit lasted until 4:5. When he was about to lose the set, he took advantage of one of Musetti’s few careless moments to equalize. However, three avoidable errors promptly led to the loss of serve again. After 61 minutes, the first set was over – after a stop ball from the Italian, who surprised Zverev, who was positioned far behind the line, several times with short balls.
With temperatures once again high in summer, Zverev swapped his black national outfit for a white T-shirt for the first time in the tournament. During the change of ends, he not only put cooling towels on his shoulders, but also ice packs on his head or under his shirt. In the second set, he asked spectators in the front row to give him a fan and waved himself a little air.
At 4:3, the organizers closed the roof of the hall and the court was then in the shade. But that didn’t help Zverev either. At 5:5, Zverev had a weak phase on his own serve and allowed the Italian to make the decisive break. “It’s now time to see what’s going on and hopefully get back to my best form, which, to be honest, I was still in a few weeks ago,” said Zverev.
Source: German