With his next show of strength, Alexander Zverev reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and thus made an embarrassment forgotten.
The Olympic tennis champion had forgotten his father’s birthday in Melbourne and was only reminded of it by the interviewer on the court after his five-set win against Britain’s Cameron Norrie. “Shit, I totally forgot about that,” said Zverev. “At least I reached the quarter-finals and such a good present.”
Together with the audience in the Margaret Court Arena, he sang a birthday song after the 7:5, 3:6, 6:3, 4:6, 7:6 (10:3) against Norrie. Dad Alexander Senior reacted with emotion in the stands – and is likely to forgive his son given his progress. “I’m here in the middle of the tournament, I have my cell phone off as always. I don’t even know which day is when,” Zverev tried to excuse his forgetfulness. The 26-year-old still wants to get a gift in addition to the victory. “I’ll ask him again,” announced Zverev.
In order not to spoil his father’s birthday and reach the quarter-finals for the third time in Melbourne, Zverev had to do hard work again. It was only after 4:05 hours that Zverev converted his first match point and then raised his arms in relief.
Alcaraz is waiting in the quarterfinals
In the fight for the semi-finals, Zverev will now face Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday. The Spaniard clearly defeated the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6:4, 6:4, 6:0 and, unlike Zverev, was able to save energy. “If I play like I did today, I will get my chances. I’m looking forward to the match,” said Alcaraz about the duel with Zverev, for whom it is the eleventh quarter-final in one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. From a German perspective, only Boris Becker has been in a quarter-final more often (23).
“In the end it’s a Grand Slam where everyone plays their best tennis. And Cameron played incredibly well today,” said Zverev after the next shaking game. In the second round he only won against the Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein in the tiebreak of the fifth set. “I’m just happy that I’m further along.” Tennis legend Boris Becker was also relieved. “I would say marathon man Sascha Zverev. Something happens to him in the fifth set, the mentality is right,” said Becker as a TV expert on Eurosport.
Calm despite audience protests
Against Norrie, Zverev didn’t let himself be disturbed by a spectator protest in the middle of the third set. A woman had thrown leaflets onto the pitch from the stands behind Zverev. The woman apparently wanted to use her action to draw attention to the Middle East conflict; the pieces of paper said “Free Palestine”.
Two other spectators dragged the person out of the arena as no stewards intervened. The game could be continued after a few minutes. When they returned to the stadium, the two spectators received loud applause from the other visitors. Zverev briefly moved to the middle of the pitch and watched the action from there. “It was strange that two spectators had to take care of it. Especially when you see how strict the security precautions in the players’ area are,” said Zverev.
Zverev started very focused against Norrie. The sixth in the world rankings served well, made few mistakes at the beginning and took the first round after 47 minutes. Zverev continued to control events in the second set. He managed another break to make it 3-2 – Zverev had everything under control and seemed to be heading for a largely safe victory.
Suddenly careless
But then Zverev suddenly became careless, played without concentration and made a few unnecessary mistakes. So he let Norrie back into the game, who managed to equalize the set. But Zverev remained calm, similar to the close second round game against Klein. In the third set he managed another early break and Zverev was now fully focused on the matter. Even the short interruption when the score was 4:1 didn’t disrupt his rhythm.
But like after winning the first set, Zverev had a weak phase afterwards. Norrie took advantage of this and equalized again after just over three hours. So the decision had to be made in the decision sentence. “Luckily I played my best tennis in the tiebreak,” said Zverev when, after more than four hours, he was finally able to devote himself to his father’s birthday. “He just told me it would have been fine if I had won in three sets so we could celebrate longer.”
