After Basilashvili’s three-set win over Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev failed to take advantage of two match points against Taylor Fritz and was knocked out in the Indian Wells quarter-finals.
When the unexpected defeat in the quarter-finals was sealed, Alexander Zverev walked off Centre Court as quickly as possible. A quick handshake with surprise winner Taylor Fritz, a nod towards the umpire, grab his bag and the Olympic champion was gone. Despite two match points, the 24-year-old Hamburg player lost 6:4, 3:6, 6:7 (3:7) on Friday (local time) and thus also missed his big chance to win his third Masters this year in Indian Wells. “I knew after Stefano’s loss this morning, I was kind of the favourite to win the tournament. But my tennis just wasn’t there,” Zverev said. “That hurts.”
The world number three, Stefanos Tsitsipas, had earlier lost unexpectedly 4-6, 6-2, 4-6 to Georgia’s Nikolos Bassilashvili in the quarter-finals. Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Cameron Norrie of Great Britain will face each other in the other semi-final of the 8.76 million US dollar hard court tournament.
A win against Fritz, the number 39 in the world rankings, and Zverev would have felt he already had a hand on the trophy – that was probably not only the opinion of the observers of the hard court tournament in southern California, for which ex-professional Tommy Haas was responsible. “I lost 7-6 in the third at a Masters that I could win,” said the visibly upset Zverev at the press conference. “It’s just not a sensationally good feeling in me right now. “
“On one side there were a few who always talked between first and second serve and said not so nice things. “
ZVEREV
After struggling, especially in the second set, Zverev broke for 2-0 in the final set and, with that advantage, was back in control of the match. However, when Fritz defended the first match point at 5:2, and the second a little later on Zverev’s serve, and then evened the score at 5:5, things got really exciting again, much to the delight of the fans in the world’s second-largest tennis stadium.
Zverev did not like the behaviour of some spectators at all. “On one side there were a few who always talked between the first and second serve and said not so nice things. At some point I said, okay, third set tiebreak, at least be respectful,” he reported. It didn’t help. “He played the tiebreak sensationally, I didn’t have many chances,” said Zverev about Fritz’s performance. After that, he disappeared as quickly as he could.