Tennis
The injury allowed him to grow! Can Zverev prove he belongs at the ATP Finals?
It’s been more than a year since he was seriously injured in the semi-finals of the French Open in the middle of a battle with Nadal. His start after the injury was not ideal, many wrote him off. However, Alexander Zverev is once again winning tournament trophies and openly asking to play in the Tournament of Champions.
It’s been more than a year since he was seriously injured in the semi-finals of the French Open in the middle of a battle with Nadal. His start after the injury was not ideal, many wrote him off. However, Alexander Zverev is once again winning tournament trophies and openly asking to play in the ATP Finals. How is he doing in the battle for a position among the top eight players?
There is always something going on around German tennis player Alexander Zverev. And that’s even if we leave aside the extra-tennis stuff. Although he is currently in tenth position in the ATP rankings, he is on the way to improving.
But gradually. The 26-year-old was already world number two. At last year’s French Open, an injury ended his interesting duel against the local king Rafael Nadal. And the Hamburg native’s return to the courts has certainly not been easy.
No stagnation!
His results in the first part of 2023 were not convincing and some tennis experts thought he had missed the train, popularly speaking, and pointed to more promising players like Alcaraz.
But Zverev soon proved that the only limit was his health and he definitely doesn’t belong on the back burner. Three weeks after Wimbledon, he announced his assault on triumph in his home city of Hamburg. And he succeeded.
He brought back points for the semi-finals in Cincinnati and the quarter-finals at the US Open. He skipped off to China for his second title of the year.
And the two-time ATP Finals champion would love to be a part of the final event again this year. “Of course I didn’t want to get injured, but my injury has allowed me to grow,” he told the website of the current tournament in Vienna.
It is at this event that he can move closer to his goal this year. But let’s add that the competition here is very good.
Zverev in Vienna
As the only one of the big favourites, the German tennis player opened his time in Vienna already on Monday. The home wild card Ofner was easily defeated.
His results this year are better than those of his closest competitors. If he doesn’t fail in the Austrian capital, he will finish above both Dane Rune and American Fritz in the final showdown and will not be absent at the staging of the best in Turin this year.
Finally ..
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Zverev proves that this motto holds true. Zverev’s career has encountered problems in various ways, but from a tennis point of view it is essential that the German overcomes everything and finds the ground under his feet again.
From the point of view of his results this year, he should definitely not miss the final event of the season. It would be a surprise if he bounced back from the Erste Bank Open in Vienna in the opening rounds.
Source: ATP, Erste Bank Open, X/Twitter