Big surprise at the Australian Open! Zverev grounds ambitious Alcaraz

Although he was previously just one match away from the world number one position, still German tennis player Alexander Zverev was not among the biggest favourites of the Australian Open. Now he is clearly among them. How did his match against world number two Carlos Alcaraz go and who will he face next in the opening major of the season?

Zverev and his comeback

Confidence in Alexander Zverev’s return to the top of the ATP rankings was unconvincing after his comeback last year. After all, his performances were not exactly dazzling either.

Although the Hamburg native dominated his home tournament, he also played in the semi-finals of the French Open and clawed his way into the final Tournament of Champions. On the other hand, he didn’t break through to the absolute top. At least so far.

A promising start to the year

This year is looking different. To start with, the proud German played some very good matches at the Team United Cup. For example, he took on Greece’s Tsitsipas and Poland’s Hurkacz. But Zverev is proving his top quality these days in Melbourne.

He handled some tough situations at the opening Grand Slam of the season. He was forced into a five-set battle by Slovak Klein and Briton Norrie. But the German tennis player brought both marathon duels to a victorious end.

He thus qualified among the top eight tennis players. For the third time in his career in Australia. But he was looking for one of his toughest opponents. He faced the world number two, Spain’s Alcaraz.

The match with Alcaraz

Alcaraz entered the quarter-final match as the clear favourite. Throughout the tournament, the Spaniard lost only one set. And he certainly did not hide his ambitions in his statements.

But in his match against Zverev, he stumbled. From the start of the match, he had much less help with his serve than the German and was soon down 2: 0 in sets. Compared to his opponent, the favourite also made more errors.

The third set signalled a change. Alcaraz was able to climb out of a 1:4 disadvantage and eventually won his first set in the quarterfinals in a tiebreak.

But that was it for him. In the fourth set, both players held their serves and only one loss was decisive and it came from the Spaniard. The bottom line is that Zverev defeated Alcaraz after sets 6:1, 6:3, 6:7, 6:4.

Zverev thus proved that he belongs to the top positions and is looking forward to his seventh Grand Slam semifinal in his career. He will face Russia’s Medvedev.

The German tennis player certainly doesn’t want to end up like he did in the semi-finals of Roland Garros 2022, where he was injured in his duel against Nadal. Rather, he will want to build on the semi-final of the 2020 US Open, where he managed to sneak through to the final of a major only once out of his six attempts.

Source: ATP, Roland Garros, Australian Open