In the quarter -finals of Rome, the final station for Alexander Zverev was on Wednesday evening. Germany’s best tennis player lost his match against the Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6: 7 and 4: 6. Afterwards the defending champion scolded: “The balls were a joke today. They are very big. It is difficult to beat Winner here.”
Something is always with German, at least that’s what the feeling. Is he possibly a bad loser? The truth, of course, includes that the balls are equally large and heavy for all players and Zverev had previously won three matches in Rome.
What possibly added to him more than the tennis balls were the fans in the fully packed Campo Centrale. The mood was similar in a small, narrow football stadium. Mats Hummels, who was sitting in the audience, will have experienced games in his career, where it was quieter – football games, mind you.
Every point of the Italian was frenetically applauded by the fans, for his German opponent there was only polite applause if a good blow was successful. Zverev was not whistled, he was simply there. The audience seemed relatively irrelevant who Musetti actually played against.
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It is, so to speak, the maximum penalty for a top sportsman if it is not considered. This is not an exclusive peculiarity of Alexander Zverev, just think of Novak Djokovic. And besides: who likes to lose? In addition, in such an atmosphere.
For Zverev’s constitution, however, there would be simple therapy: he would only have to compete in his home tournament in Hamburg next week. There he would be celebrated with every rally and would have the home advantage that Musetti could claim in Rome for himself.
However, the German for Hamburg canceled some time ago that the appointment a week immediately in front of the French Open was “stupid”. Which top star would compete somewhere else before a Grand Slam tournament?
Wait: Jannik Sinner reported for the Rothenbaum and Novak Djokovic wants to compete in Geneva next week. Maybe Alexander Zverev should think again. The organizers would certainly keep the door open to him until the last moment. Zverev now has to clarify for himself whether he wants to travel to Paris with a lot of encouragement or to complain a bit about too big balls.
Source: Tagesspiegel
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