“I’m back,” Alexander Zverev announced on Arthur Ashe’s blue court around 2 a.m. Tuesday, his face haggard. The German’s epic nearly five-hour showdown with Janik Sinner at the US Open saw spectators hesitating between leaving or staying, missing the thrilling final or barely getting any sleep in the early hours of the New York morning Indecision. .
In fact, Zverev is returning to New York after missing out with an injury last year. That year, he broke his ankle during a gruesome match at the French Open — with Rafael Nadal in front of him — and doubts were cast over his future in tennis.
The German was the leader of a generation of tennis players – Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini, Kaspar Rudd – who were billed as replacing the “Big Three” of Ronaldo. The Big Three rule tennis with Jay Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. past decades. Among them, only Russian Daniel Medvedev, who stole the 2021 US Open title from Djokovic, managed to bite the bullet. And the younger generation, led by Carlos Alcaraz, threatened to leave them with nothing.
Murcia and Zverev will meet at dawn in the quarter-finals in New York today, and it will be an opportunity to begin to determine which of these two generations will dominate the stage of world tennis greatness.
Alcaraz would have enjoyed his breakfast yesterday as he checked out what had happened in the early morning. Zverev got rid of one of his black beasts, Jannik Sinner, who beat him in their last encounter in Miami this spring and with him in last year’s quarterfinals. Sinner had a historic matchup. The German’s legs will go a long way after a devastating game, including a few minutes rest after Zverev asked the referee to eject a spectator from the lower seats, cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. “He said one of Hitler’s most famous lines,” the German accused. Security guards searched for the spectator until they found him and ejected him. Zverev explained that the man sang the national anthem to the Nazi line “Deutschland über alles” (“Germany above all”).
Zverev seems like a more affordable opponent than Sinner, but he’ll be in a lot of trouble. He has returned to his level in recent months – he lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals in Cincinnati, won in Hamburg – and in his personal history with Murcia, he has Won with three wins and two losses.
american dream coco goff
In the women’s draw, Coco Gauff brought great joy to the American Diocese. After two decades of dominance alongside Venus (especially Serena Williams), Gauff became her successor at just 19, making her first New York semifinal. He already reached the final of Roland Garros last year.