Wimbledon: Sascha Zverev has a Grand Slam problem but, luckily for him, he has age on his side

The first week of Wimbledon came to an end with two more top-10 seeds crashing out on Saturday, only fitting given how the last six days have panned out.

But even as world no 1 Simona Halep lost to Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 after leading 5-2 in the decider, the bigger shock was reserved for fourth seed Alexander Zverev. Playing for the third day in succession, the talented 21-year-old was shocked by world N 138 and qualifier Ernests Gulbis in a gruelling five-set match 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 that lasted three hours and 20 minutes. In the process, he became the first qualifier to reach the round of 16 at the All England Club since American Brian Baker in 2012.

While Halep was the second-to-last Top 10 seed remaining in the upset-strewn women’s draw, grass has never been her best surface and she was playing the deceptive Taiwanese who is known for her giant-killing ways at a Grand Slam.

On the other hand, Gulbis, who is also best-known for his stunning win over Roger Federer in the third round of French Open in 2014, was a 29-year-old who had to play the qualifiers to reach the main draw. He had just one tour-level win in 2018 and hadn’t won three straight matches in a row since the 2016 Roland Garros. He was playing his third straight five-set match and was down two sets to one against one of the rising stars of the sport.

ATP Tour vs Grand Slams

But Zverev was nowhere close to the force he is on the ATP tour, a trend seen across Grand Slams. This was his fifth five-set match in six weeks (French Open: Round 2 vs Lajovic, Round 3 vs Dzumhur and Round 4 vs Khachanov; Wimbledon: Round 2 vs Fritz) and second straight in London.

The 21-year-old German was troubled by a stomach bug in his rain-delayed match against Taylor Fritz, and the illness coupled with the heat in London meant he was completely washed out by the fifth set and failed to win a single game. For someone who said he was “unplugged” and hadn’t eaten in a day, it was a commendable fight. However, it is also a fact that the young Zverev has a high barrier to cross.

Last year, he had similarly lost the plot in the fifth set, losing 1-6 to Milos Raonic in the round of 16 after an otherwise strong performance. At the French Open, he had played three back-to-back five-set matches in the first week, only to be laid low by injury in a one-sided quarter-final against eventual runner-up Dominic Thiem.

That quarter-final is his best showing at a Grand Slam. In the last four Majors, where he has been a top-10 seed, lost in second round to Borna Coric at US Open, to Hyeon Chung in the third round of the Australian Open, before the injury-marred quarter-final at Roland Garros.

In a statistic that is clearly disproportionate to the talent he possess, the only active player to have three Masters titles other than the ‘Big Four’, is yet to make his mark at the highest level.

For many tennis watchers, this failure to launch is puzzling and a sign of weakness. The general feeling is that it is time he started wining Grand Slam titles. Roger Federer was 21, Rafael Nadal was 19, Novak Djokovic (and Juan Martin del Potro, the last young Major winner among men) were 20 when they won their first Slam.

And in this extended golden age where only two Grand Slams have been won by someone not named Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, in the last 15 years, there is even more scrutiny on any youngster than breaks through to the top. Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych before that, have already buckled under this weight.

But Saturday’s match was a lesson in why Grand Slams are still the Final Frontier.

Time is on his side

Yes, the men’s tour is top heavy. But not largely because of the lack of challenge, but rather the lack of application and management by the ones that possess the potential.

Majors are fought in best-of-five sets over two weeks, and very few of the younger challengers can adapt and adjust to this.

As Zverev himself experienced at the French Open, where his body was out of gas after five-setters in the second, third and fourth round, it is an art to conserve energy and peak at the right time. It is an art that the top guys have mastered over the years.

At Wimbledon, Federer averages under three-to-five minutes in his own service games, and more often than not, needs just one break to win a set, which neutralizes missing all those break points. Nadal, with all the time he needs to serve, doesn’t let it come under pressure often either. Even Djokovic, on his comeback trail, serves smart and relies on his returning to get the decisive breaks. And once they get the lead, it is a question of holding on and minimising errors and risk.

This is where Zverev needs to work on. His burst of energy has won him three Masters (with wins over Federer and Nadal) and a 500 title in the last 14 months. But this all-out game needs to be tampered with calculated strokes.

Against Gulbis, even accounting for the fact that illness drained him out power, he was in the game with some clutch plays in the second and third after squandering the first, saving a set point at 3-5 in the third set. In all honestly, one thought he wouldn’t need a fifth. Moments like this make champions. But once his level dropped in the fourth, he didn’t win a single game to exit in the first week.

“I didn’t think I could win after losing the third set after serving for the set, but then he got tired in the end and I was just playing much more smarter, so I’m really glad,’’ Gulbis said of his gameplan to come back from a two-set deficit.

Playing smarter is the key, and Zverev will need to learn that lesson sooner rather than later. Even his opponent admitted that he sees a future Grand Slam in the German.

It took him 12 Majors to reach his first quarter-final, but with coach Zverev Sr, it should be a much shorter wait for the next step and beyond. He is still only 21, after all.