The biggest disturbance to his tranquil rhythm was a German flag, flapping distractingly in his eye line during an early service game. Zverev grew into the match, yelling in delight after one stunning backhand winner down the line. There was a hopelessness to Zverev's aces and an ominous finality every time he decamped from his usual baseline habitat and loomed towards the net. By the third game, his sweat had changed his outfit’s colour and the match was already slipping away.īroken in just his second service game, he had few answers throughout to Zverev who forced him onto his weaker backhand, bossed the rallies and deployed a fearsome arsenal of winners. It is a traditional Armenian name for boys but perhaps it was also a Khachanov parental ruse, like the Johnny Cash song A Boy Named Sue, a bid to toughen up their son? Mixed results for that strategy on Sunday's evidence, where Khachanov dressed to blend in, in a T-shirt the same shade of blue as the decorative Tokyo 2020 signs around centre court at the Ariake Tennis Centre. The name has become a punchline, a shorthand for a sort of narrowmindedness. It has been a tough year to be called Karen. So it was Zverev, whose parents played tennis for the Soviet Union, against Russian Olympic Committee member and world number 25 Karen Khachanov. Daniil Medvedev felt like death in the heat. In an Olympics of withdrawals and stars failing to sparkle, this was not the expected men’s gold medal match.įavourite Novak Djokovic fell to Zverev, exiting in a blaze of shattered graphite. But it was his semi-final which will live longer in the memory than this sub-80 minute victory. A dominant 6-3, 6-1 win bolsters his case as a founding father in the new era of male tennis superiority. Returning to stay in contention at 3-5, Zverev finally did something more outside his serve and created two break points, denied by Karen, who sealed the deal with a service winner to stay on the title course.Is it possible not to break sweat in 35☌ temperatures?Īlexander Zverev gave that impression in sealing the men’s Olympics tennis title for Germany. He kept Zverev under pressure and earned a break at love in the sixth game after Alexander's yet another double fault. Nothing changed in set number two, with the Russian delivering one good hold after another. Serving at 3-5, Alexander repelled five set points before landing a backhand wide to hand the opener to Khachanov, who had everything under control in the first part of the encounter. Zverev was off to a terrible start, losing serve at love in the first game after a double fault and taking only five points on the return in the rest of the set, unable to erase the deficit and make a turnaround. Struggling on the second serve, Alexander had to play against eight break chances and got broken three times, firing 11 winners and almost 30 unforced errors.Īt the same time, Karen counted 17 winners and ten mistakes to master the scoreboard and march on, joining Daniil Medvedev in the first-ever all-Russian Masters 1000 semi-final clash. The Russian repeated that in Montreal, losing 13 points in nine service games and fending off both break chances to mount the pressure on the German, who could not endure it. Khachanov toppled Zverev last time they played at the Paris Masters in the closing stages of 2018 when he won the title. Karen Khachanov beat Alexander Zverev in the 2019 Montreal quarter-final.
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