Alexander “Sascha” Zverev has been taking substantial steps over the last couple of years toward reaching the elite status in the ATP. These manifest steps are already a part of his record, such as the three ATP 1000 titles, the first appearance in the quarterfinals of a Major, and an entrance into the top 5 of the rankings. We have been hearing the footsteps of his forthcoming arrival to the top level of our sport for a while now. You can add this week to that list of steps, a giant one in fact, now that Zverev has reached the final round of the ATP World Tour Finals where, every year, eight players considered the cream of the crop in men’s tennis meet in an attempt to earn the prestigious year-ending title.
Sascha’s win over Roger Federer on Saturday, however, goes a bit further than just jumping through another hoop in terms of ascendancy. It’s not just that the German added another check mark to his list of achievements in Wikipedia. What matters more is that, throughout the 7-5 7-6 victory, Zverev exhibited the type of characteristics that you would want an elite player to regularly put on display with regard to tactics, IQ level, and mental fortitude.
And Sascha decorated the victory with some the highest quality of tennis that he has ever played on big stage, especially in the first set.
For starters, he did not merely rest on the laurels of his solid baseline game. He also sought to take the initiative and attack. He approached the net more times than Federer despite not using the serve-and-volley like Roger occasionally does. It is undeniable that few – and not the majority – of those approaches were the result of short slices hit by Federer, thus leaving Sascha little choice but to move forward. However, Sascha of the past may have still sent some of those back over the net and step back to the baseline to continue the rally (in fact, an example of that came in the second set at a crucial moment and he paid the price for it – more on that later). In this match though, Zverev was willing to do plow forward and squeeze the bolts on the Federer machine, even in big points (ex: 3-3, 30-30, serving).
There were also the other times when he came to the net with conviction and not as a result of a short ball. There is no doubt that applying pressure to Federer when given the occasion and daring him to produce the passing shot was part of Sascha’s overall plan. That plan also appeared to include a conscious effort to pick on Roger’s backhand. If my count is correct, Zverev approached the net nine times in the first set and only one of those was to his opponent’s forehand. As for rallies from the baseline, Zverev dictated most of them, looking to end the point in the same way that Federer usually does when he is forced to engage in longer rallies.
To top all of the above, he served phenomenally well. No, the numbers will not necessarily tell you that (3 aces, one double fault, 68% first serves), but the fact that he came up with big serves on crucial points will.
Federer, for his part, did not play a bad first set by any means. He did miss a makeable return wide at 15-30 in the 3-3 game on Sascha’s serve, but I would advise people to watch the previous 15-15 point before rushing to judgment on that return miss. After a long and exhausting point in which you had to scramble corner-to-corner multiple times, it is very possible that you have not recovered by the time the ensuing point starts, and you make an error.
Otherwise, Federer had little trouble holding serve despite a below-average first-serve percentage (55%) for his standards because he was using the follow-up shots to his first and second serves extremely well and changing the pace of the ball with great accuracy during rallies. By the time he was serving at 5-6, he was a perfect eight for eight when approaching the net, with only four unforced errors committed in the match.
In that 5-6 game, Federer missed only one first serve (first point). He did however miss a forehand to start the game. In the second point, he only did what had worked well for him up to that point in the match. He hit a first serve, approached the net on the next shot, and volleyed to the open corner. Except, Zverev came up with a spectacular passing shot on the run from the forehand side (not usually his forté). It was his only point won in the set with Roger at the net. At 0-30, Roger got another first serve in but Zverev landed a rock-solid return smack on the baseline, pushing the Swiss into a defensive position, and eventually winning the point on Roger’s forced error. Zverev had three set points at 0-40. He only needed one. Sascha sent back another first serve by Roger who missed the subsequent forehand wide. Two forehand errors by Federer to start and finish the game, with two exceptional points by Sascha squeezed in between. Blank break for the German, 7-5.
In the early part of the second set, Zverev, for some reason, did not stick to the level of aggressiveness that he demonstrated in the first. He was still hitting the ball hard, placing them deep, and continuing to play good tennis overall. Yet, little details make the difference at this level and this particular shift to a less offensive disposition almost cost the German dearly when, at 1-1 in the second set and down a break point on his serve at 30-40, Federer returned short and yet Sascha elected to back-step to the baseline after hitting his backhand instead of approaching the net. It was a strange decision because until that point he had a great success rate (7 out of 8) on points won when approaching Federer’s backhand! To add salt to the wound, he passed on two more shots in that same rally on which he could have pulled the trigger. The rally ultimately ended on a backhand down-the-line winner by Federer for his only break of the match.
Unfortunately for Federer, he played his worst two games of the match after that break and had to then contend with holding serve just to get to the tiebreaker.
He had a final regrettable error at 4-5 in the tiebreaker when he netted a routine forehand volley that he would/should otherwise make in the third cycle of his REM sleep. It was a grave error because it gave Zverev two match points at a moment when it looked like Federer was getting close to having a set-point. To be honest, considering his level since the early break in that set, it was a jackpot opportunity. Zverev had been the better player since that break, getting within two points of breaking Roger’s more than once in the 4-3 game that he lost with two successive unforced errors at 30-30.
Zverev did not let that bother him though. Instead, the tiebreaker only served to confirm how far the 21-year-old German has matured overall. In the three chances that he had to approach the net and apply to pressure to Federer, he did not hesitate, winning all three including the match point. He only missed one first serve out of 6 in the tiebreaker. Following a delay after a ball-boy dropped a ball and the point had to be replayed at 3-4 down, he stepped up to the baseline and bombed an ace. Lastly, he came out on top of a grueling rally at 4-4 when he ended it with a backhand down-the-line winner.
There are the ‘listed’ accomplishments for everyone to see. Then, there are those intangibles that players value as precious assets when it comes to the long climb to the top of the ATP echelon. For Zverev, this particular victory, regardless of the outcome in Sunday’s final, must surely feel like one of those treasured intangibles.
Until next time…