Wwhile just a few hundred meters away at the Roland Garros facility in Paris, the last qualifying matches were taking place in front of thousands of fans in a hectic and emotional atmosphere, the Jean Bouin training center seemed like an oasis of calm on Thursday afternoon. There, the tennis pros were largely among themselves a few days before the start of the most important clay court tournament in the world.
Italy’s star Jannik Sinner shuffled undisturbed along the curb to the entrance. Arriving there, the South Tyrolean expected a lot of greenery and beautiful plant beds in addition to colleagues and tennis courts. At the same time, Jan-Lennard Struff trained on Court 24, equipped with a playful self-image after his final appearance in Rome recently. Tournament favorites Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic didn’t seem much more confident either. The only difference: They trained on Center Court in front of full stands.
Severe ligament injury
Alexander Zverev also made this change between training in the idyll and units in a match atmosphere at this time last year. Arrived as number three and with a tournament win in Madrid and a semi-final in Rome, Zverev combined that mixture of self-confidence and playful self-image that made him defeat Alcaraz in Paris. The stroke of fate of the severe ligament injury in the semifinals at eye level against Rafael Nadal and the seven-month forced break that followed ended this phase abruptly.
The 26-year-old has not won a tournament or beat a top 20 player since his comeback in January. After losing in the round of 16 in Rome against the Russian Daniil Medvedev and a self-destructive interview afterwards, Zverev, in search of self-image, accepted a wild card at the small ATP tournament in Geneva at short notice.
“2019 was probably even the year in which I played even worse than I’m doing this year,” said Zverev before the start of the tournament in Geneva, where he easily controlled the American Christopher Eubanks at the start and reached the semifinals on Thursday after his Opponent, the Chinese Wu Yibing, had to give up in the first set. This Friday (3:20 p.m.) Zverev will play against Nicolás Jarry for a place in the final.
“Geneva was a good springboard,” recalled Zverev, who won the tournament four years ago against Chilean Jarry, who was later suspended for doping, and reached the quarter-finals in Paris. Zverev also cited “self-confidence” and “daily match practice” as reasons for his participation in Geneva in 2023. Zverev had stated in Rome that he had played his “worst tennis” since 2015, 2016. Looking back at the third narrow defeat against Medvedev within a short period of time, Zverev stated. “It was a pretty bad interview.” He understood that with Alcaraz and Medvedev he had actually only lost against two competitors.
He excluded the Masters tournament in Miami because of slight injury concerns, he did not mention Munich. Most of what he says is true. Zverev is no longer far away, but was still exposed to great fluctuations in almost every match to defeat professionals of this caliber. The confrontations in the round of 16 with the in-form top players are due to the lower seeding of Zverev, who is no longer the German number one in the world rankings for the first time since 2016. Struff in 26th place is one place ahead of him.
In the draw for the French Open on Thursday, the 22nd-seeded German escaped the strong upper half with Djokovic and Alcaraz. Zverev caught a feasible lot in the South African Lloyd Harris, who is not a proven clay court specialist. Frances Tiafoe, Jannik Sinner – and in the possible quarterfinals for the fourth time in 2023 Medvedev are the top players in his quarter.
Being able to act at eye level against Tiafoe in the third round should currently be considered a success for Zverev. Match practice would help for this mission – as well as hard training. “Daily” and “without a break” he has been working on the fine-tuning since Rome. “I haven’t lost a training set in the past four weeks,” he said, “but I have to transfer that to the match.”
At his side in Geneva this week are his parents, former tennis pro Tobias Kamke as a hitting partner with additional tasks, long-term physiotherapist Hugo Gravil and fitness trainer Dalidor Sirola. He became known in the academy of the successful Italian coach Riccardo Piatti and has replaced former rugby professional Mark Bennett since February. A request as to whether the Spaniard Sergi Bruguera would return as a coach in Paris was left unanswered by Zverev’s team on Thursday.
