AWhen Alexander Zverev sat down in the press conference room in Melbourne on Thursday and was asked the first question, the tennis player briefly let his gaze wander. “If he had sat here before the game,” said Zverev about his opponent, who had previously made life difficult for him for a long time: “Then I wouldn’t have recognized him.”
As well as? Hardly anyone has noticed Lukas Klein from Slovakia on the tour so far. He is ranked 163rd in the world and played primarily on the second-tier Challenger Tour in 2023. He once took part in a Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon last year and failed in the first round. Who probably noticed that?
“Tennis is like that sometimes”
Zverev won’t forget Klein any time soon. In any case, he had enough time to memorize the face of the person he was talking to. His second round match against the Slovak lasted four and a half hours. In the end, Zverev won by a narrow margin in five sets 7:5, 3:6, 4:6, 7:6 (7:5), 7:6 (10:7), because he was ultimately the player with the strongest nerves and was in the tie -Break of the fifth set was able to rely on his serve.
For better or worse, the German had to admit something afterwards: it could have just as easily turned out the other way around. His opponent scored exactly as many points as him and was the more active player in many phases. “He probably would have deserved it more than me today, but that’s how tennis is sometimes,” said Zverev.
The German had already failed in the second round against a qualifier last year. But at that time he was just coming back from a long injury break. This year, Zverev seemed to be in much better shape before the first Grand Slam tournament of the year and was already seen by some as the secret favorite for the title. But against Dominik Koepfer in the first round and now against Klein, Zverev was still far from winning title form.
The number six in the world rankings seemed overwhelmed at times by the Slovakian's aggressive game. Zverev actually found his way into the game well and won the first set 7:5 thanks to a late break. The rallies were initially short. Nothing pointed to such a tense ending. A lot only changed when it started to rain in Melbourne in the second set.
Since the John Cain Arena is one of three in the complex with a roof, from then on the games were played under indoor conditions. “Maybe that really suited him,” Zverev speculated. From then on, Klein played even more offensively, scoring a lot of points, especially with his forehand, and thus secured sets two and three. In the end, the Slovakian's statistics showed 80 winning strokes and 83 unnecessary errors.
“He played really unbelievably,” said Zverev. But it always takes two: One who plays “unbelievably”. And one who makes the other play “unbelievable”. Zverev acted far too passive most of the time, often standing far behind the baseline and struggling to find the right length in his shots. “I was a spectator for a long time. The match was in his hands,” said Zverev: “He hit all the balls as hard as he could. Sometimes I didn’t know what to do.”
What was surprising: Unlike in the first round, Zverev hardly swore, appeared withdrawn and, at times, surprisingly emotionless. He hasn't had any outbursts of anger for a while now, Zverev said in the press conference afterwards. He hasn't broken a racket in a year and a half. “If I have to break out, I will. But today I didn’t feel like that helped me.”
It was only in the fourth round that Zverev found his way back into the game. But by then he already had his back to the wall. When the score was 4:4, he only fended off a breakball against himself because Klein played a free forehand out of the half court. “I think that was the only one in the match,” Zverev said afterwards. It wasn't quite like that. But Klein's parade shot was already causing him problems. The German then played more confidently in the tie-break and also benefited from his good serve.
In the last round, the world number six was already ahead with a break before Klein came back again. When Zverev was asked after the game what he was thinking, he replied: about the flight home via Dubai that evening. Mentally already on the plane – that suited Zverev's game that day.
The 26-year-old will have to improve a lot if he wants to go far in this tournament. “I think I played better than in the first round,” said Zverev, who now faces 19-year-old American Alex Michelsen. It is still largely unknown. Just like Klein.
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