TURIN, Nov 22: Audacious swinging volley winners. Serve-and-volleying. An ace out wide on his first match point – with his second serve.
Alexander Zverev showed off new, more aggressive, tactics in a dominant 6-4, 6-4 win over second-ranked Daniil Medvedev on Sunday to lift the trophy at the ATP Finals for the second time.
A day after beating top-ranked Novak Djokovic over three sets in the semifinals, Zverev raised his game to a new dimension.
It was a similar approach to how Djokovic beat Medvedev in the Paris Masters final earlier this month, when the Serb attacked the net more often than usual.
“He’s been playing great tennis for a while but now he’s also playing very intelligent tennis,” said Zverev’s older brother and fellow pro, Mischa, who has been coaching him in the absence of Alexander Zverev Sr.
Mischa, a pure serve-and-volleyer who reached a career-high ranking of No. 25 in 2017, is clearly urging his brother to come forward more.
At 6-foot-6 (1.98-meters) and with a huge wingspan, Zverev can be quite an imposing figure at the net.
Medvedev, the U.S. Open champion, won this event last year and had beaten Zverev five consecutive times.
“There’s no better way to end the season than winning here,” Zverev said. “I’m also now very much looking forward to next year already.”
The title culminates quite a year for Zverev, who also won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and who has now finished 2021 with more wins on tour – 59, one more than Medvedev – than anyone else.
The main thing missing in Zverev’s trophy collection is a Grand Slam title, having lost an epic final to Dominic Thiem in last year’s U.S. Open final, when Zverev served for the title in the deciding fifth set.
The final was a rematch of a round-robin encounter on Tuesday, when Medvedev beat Zverev in a third-set tiebreaker.
Helped by fast conditions inside the Pala Alpitour, Zverev was virtually untouchable on his serve, winning 20 of 25 service points in the first set. Zverev broke again in the opening game of the second set and hardly wavered the rest of the way. (AP)
