But that event, while it means a lot to tennis players and delivers one of the game’s largest cash prizes, lacks the luster of an Olympic gold medal. I was playing good tennis.”įor Zverev, the only win that compared to the Olympic triumph is his victory in the ATP finals in 2018. “He played an outstanding match,” Khachanov said of Zverev. When Khachanov’s last swing sent the ball into the bottom of the net, he collapsed to his knees and buried his face on the pavement. ace to get to within two points of the gold medal, pushed perfect backhand volley for match point then clinched the gold medal with a blast off his forehand from the middle of the court. In that match, he coughed up a two-set lead and served for the match at 5-3 in the fifth set but could not win it. Open final, his game devolved into a series of slices and soft second serves. How different a player Zverev seems now from 11 months ago when, in the late stages of the U.S. Zverev never looked back from there, bullying Khachanov with big serves and searing backhands and even sprinkling in the occasional drop shot and topspin lob.Ī huge soccer fan, Zverev played in a white shirt with black trim on the sleeves - and a hint of tennis ball yellow - that was awfully similar to the uniform that Germany’s six-time World Cup champion soccer teams wear. Zverev broke Khachanov’s serve in the third game of the first set then once more in the ninth game to take the first set, forcing Khachanov into a sloppy volley that sailed wide of the open court. “The gold medal for me, the value for me is incredible because you’re not playing for yourself, you’re playing for your whole country, This is an incredible feeling for me right now.” “This is so much bigger than anything else in sports,” Zverev said. He reeled of 10 of 11 games to send Djokovic packing and picked up Sunday right where he left off, playing the best four sets of his career on a big stage. But midway through the second set against Djokovic, Zverev experienced a revelation - that he needed to stop rallying and start swinging through the ball.
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