Andrea Petkovic thought Alexander Zverev appeared “utterly crushed” following his Australian Open ultimate defeat however the former German tennis star understood it as a result of she felt his recreation was higher than ever and he nonetheless didn’t land a Grand Slam.
After falling brief in two Australian Open semifinals prior to now, the 27-year-old made his large breakthrough at Melbourne Park this 12 months and reached his first ultimate.
There, No. 1 seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner was ready for him.
And though Zverev was enjoying a few of his finest tennis and feeling assured, he was fully outplayed by the Italian, who received 6-3 7-6 (4) 6-3.
After falling to a 0-3 file in his Grand Slams, the German had a fairly clean and numb face for almost all of the ceremony so it wasn’t laborious to determine how heartbroken he was.
“You couldn’t help but feel for the guy. He looked absolutely and utterly crushed,” Petkovic wrote on her Substack.
Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner© Australian Open/YouTube
Petkovic: Zverev made the largest progress in his tennis, but it wasn’t sufficient
All through the match, the 2014 French Open semifinalist was noticing indicators of development within the 27-year-old’s recreation.
And the world No. 2 himself was most likely feeling nice about his probabilities however then he ended up dropping in straight units.
“Although this time on paper he looked the furthest away, I actually thought in his tennis he had made the biggest progress,” Petkovic added.
“He hit the ball bigger than he had all tournament long, 10 km/h faster in fact, he stood closer to the baseline. He made 81% first serves in the first set. And yet. It wasn’t enough.”
Previously, Zverev blew a two-set lead within the 2020 US Open ultimate to Dominic Thiem.
Final 12 months, the German was up by two units to 1 in opposition to Carlos Alcaraz within the French Open ultimate however did not have sufficient to complete the job because the Spaniard got here again to win 6-3 2-6 5-7 6-1 6-2.
After dropping to Sinner, the 27-year-old admitted that he didn’t wish to go down as “one of the greatest without a Grand Slam title.”
