Dhe first steps before a big performance are always the hardest. Uncertainty and nervousness are immense as soon as tennis professionals compete in their first round match at the four most important tournaments in the world. Everyone is wondering whether they can use their training performance in the match or even improve it, what the wind and weather will be like and how the audience and opponents on the other side are feeling. In addition to all the usual questions that a player asks himself before the first emergency, Alexander Zverev in Paris has one more: How would he feel if he were a year after his fatal twisting of his ankle in the semifinals against Rafael Nadal and the months that followed Injury break re-enters Roland Garros soil?
Muffing out or winning the match, that was the question on Tuesday. After 2:43 hours of play, the answer was: both. In the first round of the French Open, Zverev showed a performance against the South African Lloyd Harris that is about as far away from his sovereignty of earlier days as – geographically speaking – his native city of Hamburg is from his place of residence Monaco. But he managed to turn a bad match into a good one. Mainly thanks to his serve, with which he saved himself from many a tricky situation. And a certain coolness when he was behind and things got hot. Otherwise, the 7: 6 (8: 6), 7: 6 (7: 0), 6: 1 win over Harris was a match that the 26-year-old should forget until his second round game against Slovakian Alex Molcan on Thursday.
The fact that the Olympic champion was allowed to take the first steps of his Paris comeback on the Simonne-Mathieu court was a gentle approach to the Philippe-Chatrier court, where the accident happened a year ago – and where Zverev would like to be in the semifinals or final again . It is also clear to Zverev, who is mostly convinced of himself, that this requires enormous playful progress. When asked if he was happy with the match, he replied, “No. But I’m happy to have won in three sets.”
An allusion to the fact that he had liked to torment himself and his fans for five sets in previous opening matches. In the former greenhouse, which was converted into a tennis stadium a few years ago, Zverev only slipped up in the second service game: harmless, especially compared to what he experienced a year earlier in the semifinals, but somehow symptomatic of his shaky performance. Here and there mistakes followed mistakes, neither the world number 28. from Germany nor the South African, who slipped down to position 294, was able to seize the game. The external conditions played a role, said Zverev afterwards. Yes, it was windy.
At least when he got into trouble, Zverev indicated his class. He was able to fend off seven out of eight breakballs, and he also freed himself from other tricky situations like when the score was 4: 5 when he fended off two break chances in a row. When he was in front, things looked different. In the first tiebreak he missed two chances before he prevailed, in the second set he served 6: 5 to win the set and failed. Immediately afterwards, Harris again managed the remarkable achievement of taking the level of play to completely new depths: his mistakes gave Zverev a 7-0 in the tie-break. When the South African Harris had his left calf treated before the third set, it was clear that the course of the game would not change direction. The victory confirmed Zverev’s mood.
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In the days before the match, the 26-year-old had shown himself to be calm. Since he returned to the professional tour at the beginning of the year, the French Open has been the tournament “that I’m looking forward to the most”. Not only does he enjoy competing in Paris without pain and worry, but also attracting less attention. Unlike in the past, this time he is not perceived as a co-favourite. From the grandstand on Tuesday, it was not clear where the Hamburger derives his current optimism from. It’s definitely his fitness, possibly also the calmness with which coach father Alexander Zverev senior sat in the sun all the time.
On the other hand, the one who had recently outstripped Zverev as the best-placed German tennis professional lost his best form at the high point of the clay court season. “It’s annoying that it happens at the French Open that I don’t play so well,” said Jan-Lennard Struff after the first-round defeat against the Czech Jiri Lehecka on Monday evening. The Warsteiner had reached the quarterfinals at the Masters tournament in Monte Carlo and even reached the final at the equally high-class tournament in Madrid. “The season I’ve been playing so far won’t get worse because of the result here,” said Struff. Now he is “in the mood for Wimbledon and the German lawn tournaments in Stuttgart and Halle.”
His Davis Cup colleague Zverev, on the other hand, can continue to prove himself on the sands of Paris. A forecast of how long that will be is impossible for the time being.
