Alexander Zverev had high hopes of entering the 2024 US Open quarter-final against Taylor Fritz, but he was left devasted after losing the match.
Zverev was considered one of the favorites to win the season’s last major after Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic crashed out of the tournament. He’s had one of the most consistent years in his career, having already reached one Grand Slam final at Roland Garros.
The matchup against Fritz is a tricky one for the German, as the American player bested him at Wimbledon earlier this year. It’s still a matchup that Zverev can win because he’s arguably the better player than Fritz.
He wasn’t in their match at the US Open when the American outplayed him in four sets to secure the semi-final. It was a difficult loss for the German player to digest because he didn’t play well. After the match, he described his performance as terrible.
“I played terrible. Just from the baseline — I mean, serving and actually returning was actually okay. From the baseline I played absolutely terrible. I don’t know.”
“My backhand, I don’t remember since being on tour hitting my backhand this badly. I just don’t. I mean, I was missing shots which were in the middle of the court with no pace, and bottom of the net. Terrible. Just absolutely terrible by me.”
The backhand is a staple of Zverev’s game because it’s just so solid. Whenever he needs it, he finds it, but against Fritz, it really wasn’t working. Much of what worked well for the former World No. 2 this year was his being far more aggressive than in the past.
He previously had trust in his baseline play, which wasn’t there in the quarter-final of the US Open. He was timid in many rallies, and even the final point of the match demonstrated how unsure Zverev was of his shots. The backhand continuously let him down, which was a tough pill for him to swallow.
“My forehand was okay, actually. My serve was okay. But my most reliable shot, the shot that I’m most known for, the shot that you normally wake me up at 3 a.m. and I would not miss was absolutely not there today, and I have no words for it, to be honest.”
Zverev also admitted that he simply didn’t know what to do. Fritz is known as a solid player on both the forehand and backhand. He can miss a lot, but his opponents have to win matches against him for the most part, and he isn’t a player who would beat himself.
“I mean, at some point I didn’t know what to do anymore. At some point I just had so many questions in my mind. I had absolutely no idea whether I should go for it, whether I should put the ball on the court.”
“Then I tried to put the ball on the court, it would go bottom of the net. A few shots I went for it, they flew — the thing is, I was missing shots, I was missing by, like, six feet, regular baseline shots.”
“I don’t know. I just have no answers right now. And don’t say that Taylor didn’t deserve to win. No, he absolutely deserved to win today. I’m not taking anything away from him. He played quite a good match. I did nothing to deserve to win.”
