The grain of sand

Zverev is on an impressive run of 37 wins for 1 loss against left-handers; who do you think that left-hander was?

And yes, it really was Tien who beat him in Acapulco, the German was going through a rough patch and was playing really badly, and he then beat Tien very easily at Roland-Garros afterwards. Anyway, the stat is crazy, Zverev LOVES playing left-handers and it’s not surprising since his best shot is his backhand, getting pinned in that crosscourt on that side is a pleasure for him! His forehand is often targeted but I find it pretty good at the start of this tournament, even excellent against Cerundolo. Everyone was expecting a tight match against the Argentinian but Z just steamrolled him, we didn’t get the big Cerundolo BUT let’s say he wasn’t exactly helped given the level of tennis Zverev produced. The German finished with almost 80% first serves and very few errors in rallies, it’s still not the ultra-offensive Zverev we were promised but he’s not as passive as usual either. I think we often forget how much of a top player he is with insane experience, he would deserve his Slam and right now he’s got a great chance to reach the semis!

Facing Tien is no gift, but getting him in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, you can’t really say it’s a bad draw. The American is still young, improving fast, and still has limits which, in my opinion, will soon be reached at this level. His win over Medvedev was already magical, everything was perfect! He likes the match-up and Daniil wasn’t as good as expected either, I feel like people are giving an enormous amount of credit to that win when there were some circumstances. Zverev is not going to play like Daniil at all, and just with his quality of serve he’s supposed to be fairly comfortable on his own service games. In the long format he gives me more guarantees than Tien, the American can absolutely produce another massive match and grab a set or even two, but in the end..