Sunday 21 November 2021
Triumph over Djokovic
Zverev has already won the biggest win
By Till Erdenberger
Alexander Zverev plays for the unofficial title of tennis world champion in the evening. A victory separates the Germans from the coronation. However, he has already achieved great things. Something bigger than a title.
There is a war of faith in modern tennis. About who the “Goat” is, the “Greatest Of All Times”, the greatest tennis player of all time. There are two main trends: For some, it’s Roger Federer. The Swiss is an artist, and his elegance inspires fans and specialist audiences. Its grandeur is unique. The now 40-year-old, who has been struggling with injuries and long breaks for years, stands for the beauty of the game. His one-handed backhand is style-defining, after the first heated years on the tour, Federer quickly rose to the rank of inviolable gentleman. For some, he doesn’t play tennis, he’s tennis.
Then there is Novak Djokovic. The Serb is the pragmatist of the game, with tremendous precision, fascinating fitness and an almost inexhaustible fund of effective possibilities to play balls back painfully for the opponent. From every corner of the square, for hours if necessary. Until he wins. Djokovic is not loved like Federer or admired like the tireless fighter Rafael Nadal outside of his large following. Respected and marveled already. Djokovic sometimes does and says controversial things, sometimes stupid. In the summer of 2020, he whipped through the Adria Tour, a tennis tour he initiated in the midst of a peak of the pandemic. The thing turned into a superspreader event.
“Novak is the greatest of all time”
But there are no two opinions: if the data is all alone, the 34-year-old is the greatest. He is currently number 1 in the tennis world, he has already spent around six and a half years of his life there (347 weeks). More than any other professional tennis player before him. 20 Grand Slam titles are the top brand that he shares with Federer and Nadal. In the fall he just missed the “Grand Slam” in New York, winning all four Grand Slam tournaments in one season. Only in the final of the US Open did a huge triumphant advance break out. An impressive achievement, nonetheless. Except in the final in New York, where he was defeated by the Russian Daniil Medvedev, he lost only two big matches in 2021. There is a valid database for believing Djokovic is the greatest.
Federer or Djokovic? Alexander Zverev, Germany’s best tennis player, belongs to the second trend. “For me there is nobody in the world who deserves more respect than Novak,” said Zverev on Saturday evening in Turin. “Novak is the greatest of all time”, even if some people would sometimes forget it. A friendly homage, certainly meant seriously and with full respect. And at the same time an unconscious classification of what he, Zverev, had just accomplished himself: A few minutes before his words, he had put an ace to an end under one of the best matches of his career.
“Great Match”
The Hamburger had won against Djokovic in the semifinals of the ATP Finals, the highlight of the year for the best tennis professionals in the world. Zverev beat the Dominator 7: 6, 4: 6 and 6: 3, who will finish the year for the seventh time in his glamorous career as world number one. Almost two and a half hours both played a match that became more and more high-quality over time and the 7,000 spectators in the Pala Alpitour in parts tore from their seats. It was world class tennis from two world class players. In the end, Zverev simply had an answer to every Djokovic ball. “It was a fantastic match. We played against each other five times this year, each time it was a great fight,” said Zverev after the win.
In the final, Zverev will meet Daniil Medvedev in the late afternoon (5 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de). Eight hours earlier he had easily won his semi-finals against the Norwegian Caspar Ruud. “The disadvantage is not the late match,” said Zverev: “The disadvantage is that I played against Novak Djokovic – and that for almost three hours. I think the match was a hundred times more physical than Daniil’s.” Then Zverev got into the ice bin to quickly start the regeneration process. It is quite possible that it will still not be enough: Medvedev is the defending champion, incredibly formative and Zverev’s feared opponent: The German lost five times in a row to his good friend. Only a few days ago they had a big match that Medvedev won in the tie-break of the third set.
But no matter how the match against the Russian ends, whether Zverev wins and crowns himself the unofficial tennis world champion or just loses, as in the preliminary round of the tournament: There are no bigger wins in modern tennis than against Novak Djokovic. More important, yes. But the way to all the big titles in sport leads through the Serbs. He is ten years or more older than most of his competitors in the world elite, but he is still all alone in the way of the final generation change.
“He’s much more the best”
“I think what Novak has achieved over the past ten years, the major victories, being very consistent and finishing the year as number 1 seven times: that is a clear sign for me that he is the greatest of all time” Former Dominator Pete Sampras recently said on the ATP website. “I was the best for a couple of years and he is even more so,” added Sampras. “I could talk about his career for a long time. I don’t think we’ll see another player finish seven times number 1 by the end of the year.”
Despite all his successes, Djokovic is still insatiable, the pursuit of statistical immortality is quite openly the Serbian life plan: As one of his career goals, he once officially declared to be number one in the world rankings for most weeks. Numbers are important. With a sixth win at the top professionals’ end-of-year tournament, Djokovic would have caught up with Roger Federer.
Alexander Zverev has beaten Djokovic twice this year and it was important twice. The German had already triumphed surprisingly on the way to the gold medal in Tokyo. He scratches Djokovic’s merciless dominance, this performance is to be rated higher than the five tournament victories that he clinched this year. In 2018 Zverev Djokovic had already beaten at the ATP Finals, back then in the final. The victory made Zverev the tennis world champion and should manifest the generation change. At that time things turned out differently: While Zverev disappeared into a deep sporting valley after the triumph, Djokovic became the greatest of all time. Says Zverev. At least for a big moment, Zverev is a little bigger in Turin. No matter how the game ends tonight.
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