Melbourne – In the first moment of his opening win at the Australian Open, Olympic champion Alexander Zverev was confused.
With his fifth match point, Germany’s best tennis player had just completed his 7-6 (7-3), 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) win over Daniel Altmaier. But he was not aware that his performance in the Rod Laver Arena was over. Zverev called for a ball on his next serve before realising the error and rushing to Altmaier’s net.
“I thought it was 6-2 in the tiebreak. I thought I lost one more point than I did,” the title contender told us with a smile as he appeared for the press conference wearing an Olympic muscle shirt with “Germany” written on it.
“That’s why it was a bit of a weird situation, but then I noticed that the spectators start to stand up. When you’re on the court, you don’t actually hear the score, you hear the crowd clapping and the noise,” Zverev said after rounding off a successful first day for the German men’s tennis team in Melbourne.
Zverev in round three against Millman
Without losing a set, but also without top form and with weaker phases, the world number three decided the German duel in his favour. “Not much went according to plan except that I won,” admitted the 24-year-old: “It was a first round match at a Grand Slam in January – I can’t play perfectly. There are some things I can do better.”
He will face John Millman on Wednesday in the battle for a place in the third round. The Hamburg player himself has experienced how complicated it can be against the world No. 89. Zverev has played the Australian twice, won twice – but at the French Open 2019 he only fought his way through in five sets. At the same time, he also reminded the audience of Swiss Roger Federer’s crazy upset victory over Millman – in Melbourne 2020.
But if Zverev wants to make his big ambitions for Down Under a reality, the Australian veteran must not stop him: In less than two weeks, the North German would love to celebrate his first Grand Slam title. After the forced departure of Melbourne record champion Novak Djokovic from Australia, Zverev is the top-ranked professional in the top half of the table – and could be a beneficiary of the court decision against Djokovic.
That’s why the 2020 US Open finalist returned to Centre Court after the 2:38 hours against Altmaier. Although it was approaching midnight in Melbourne, he was still practising serves.
Altmaier in Australian Open for the first time
In the first meeting with the one year younger Altmaier, Zverev had previously found it difficult to get into the match. Altmaier is ranked 87th in the world, surprised everyone by reaching the last 16 at the French Open in 2020 and is now playing at the Australian Open for the first time.
In the third set, Zverev had to survive a tricky situation against the 23-year-old from Kempen when he conceded a break and was trailing 2:4. But Zverev avoided losing the set: he missed three break points in a row, but then equalised at 4:4 – and, significantly, shook his head. At 6:5, three match points in a row were not enough for him to win.
Dominik Koepfer, who progressed despite arm problems, Oscar Otte and Yannick Hanfmann also advanced to the second round. Qualifier Hanfmann in particular is looking forward to a real highlight thanks to his first victory in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament: the duel with top star Rafael Nadal secures him a match on one of the biggest courts.
“I said last time I was going in there to win and then I got pretty, not beat up, but got pretty shot down,” said the Karlsruhe native, looking ahead to his 2019 French Open encounter with the Spaniard. Maybe this time, he said, he wants to play “awesome balls” and “tight sets”.
Hanfmann raves about backdrop
Hanfmann held his own in round one against the recently in-form Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis with a straight 6:2, 6:3, 6:2 win. “I still have the pictures in my head,” he enthused about the atmosphere: “We came onto the court and it was deafening noise. We both looked around at first and thought, “What’s going on here?” It felt like a Davis Cup atmosphere.”
Apart from Altmaier, only Peter Gojowczyk was eliminated from the men’s tournament on the first day. In the women’s singles, dreariness looms large. After Andrea Petkovic’s 2:6, 0:6 performance against Czech French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova (“a terrible day”), only Angelique Kerber can prevent complete disillusionment. Tatjana Maria is also already out.