Alexander Zverev has always been known as the one player who has failed to live up to his potential in Grand Slams. When the German star used to be World No.2 nearly 2 years ago, he had won many ATP Tour titles to get there. However, Zverev is now categorized with the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov.
Notably, Alexander Zverev has made it to three consecutive semifinals of the French Open, i.e. in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively. But apart from Roland Garros, his performances in the other 3 Grand Slams of the year have been dismal to say the least. Zverev has had his chances at the US Open over the years but somehow could not go the distance and here’s why.
Alexander Zverev impressed in 2020 and 2021 US Open editions
Going backwards, Alexander Zverev missed the 2022 edition due to injury. So if 2021 is considered, it was going reasonably smooth for the 4th seed back then. In fact, in that tournament too, he had beaten Jannik Sinner in the Round of 16 like he did this year.
However, Zverev ran into Novak Djokovic in the semifinals and the 23-time Grand Slam champion prevailed in a tight, titanic 5-set battle despite the German leading 2-1 after 3 sets. The result did come as a shock to some since Zverev was the man to beat Djokovic at the Olympic Games prior to the US Open, denying the Serbian a medal.
Djokovic vs Zverev at ATP Finals
└📂 previous matches
└📂 US Open
└📂 2021
└ 📂 53-shot rallypic.twitter.com/nlzW68tw1M— US Open Tennis (@usopen) November 18, 2021
2020 was Alexander Zverev’s best showing at the US Open in his career so far. But again, fortune did not favor a brave player like Zverev in the final. He took on Austria’s Dominic Thiem and lost another thrilling 5-set encounter. Zverev was once again two sets up but could not capitalise on that advantage as Thiem admirably bounced back to win the next three.
Zverev lost after winning first set in 2017, 2018 and 2019
Now, Alexander Zverev has had this unique problem at the US Open. Whenever he has taken the lead in the first set in some of his matches, he has gone on to lose them in 4 sets. And that happened on 3 instances, i.e. 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
In 2019, Alexander Zverev lost in the Round of 16 to Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman after clinching the first set, 6-3. But he seemed to run out of gas and had to tackle an in-form Schwartzman, losing the following three sets hardly without any fight, 2-6, 4-6, 3-6.
The year prior to that, Alexander Zverev had a real chance of progressing further than the Round of 32. But he was stunned by fellow countryman, Phillip Kohlschreiber despite taking the first set, 7-6 (1). Kohlschreiber proved to be a handful, advancing to the next round by winning 4-6, 1-6, 3-6 in the following three sets.
When it comes to 2017, Alexander Zverev won the first set 6-3 only to falter against Croatia’s Borna Coric, who took the next 3 sets by the narrowest of margins, 5-7. 6-7 (1), 6-7 (4) in their Round of 64 match. So it is safe to say that Zverev did remove one monkey off his back in this year’s edition by beating Jannik Sinner in the Round of 16 after winning the first set and leading 2-1 after three of them. And with his next potential opponents being top seeded players should he beat the World No.2 Alcaraz, Zverev could break the duck this year.
However, if history is to go by and seeing Carlos Alcaraz’s ability to soak up pressure better, Alexander Zverev will once again have a tough job on his hands.
