NEW YORK, \u2060Sept 11 (Reuters) – Alexander Zverev went from wondering whether his U.S. Open campaign was “pointless” to \u2060preparing for a second final at Flushing Meadows on Friday, as his \u200cdramatic turnaround had given him a chance to win a second Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n
The German had been pushed to dramatic five sets in each of his first two rounds but has since won four consecutive matches without \u200bdropping a set, putting himself one victory away from \u2060a second major title after a \u20606-3 7-6(7) 7-6(6) win over Karen Khachanov.<\/p>\n
“I really started off the tournament, and I was like, ‘Well, \u2060this \u200cis pointless because I’m not going to do anything here,’ and here I am sitting and preparing for a Sunday final,” Zverev told reporters.<\/p>\n
The turnaround marks a \u2060stark contrast with his first U.S. Open final in 2020, \u200bwhen Zverev also struggled \u200cfor consistency but still came within two points of beating Dominic Thiem for \u2060his maiden Grand \u200bSlam title.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t play well that entire tournament. That never changed, funny enough, and I made it to the final, and I was two points away from winning,” Zverev said.<\/p>\n
Six years on, the top \u2060seed said he was a different player, having \u200bgained experience through a string of major finals and, crucially, finally winning his long-awaited Grand Slam crown at this year’s Roland Garros.<\/p>\n
“I was inexperienced. I was still a young guy,” he said \u2060of 2020. “Everything is different.”<\/p>\n
Zverev will now face an American in a sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium, either Frances Tiafoe or Ben Shelton.<\/p>\n
The setting could hardly be more different from 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the U.S. Open to be played without spectators and Zverev’s loss \u200bunfolded inside an eerily empty Ashe.<\/p>\n
Rather than fearing a partisan crowd, \u2060Zverev said he was looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s going to be a fantastic \u200bfeeling playing, you know, a final in a sold-out Arthur \u200cAshe and not in an empty one,” he \u200bsaid. “For me, a loud and energetic crowd is always great, as long as they’re fair.”<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in New York; Editing by Kim Coghill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, \u2060Sept 11 (Reuters) – Alexander Zverev went from wondering whether his U.S. Open campaign was “pointless”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,6675,85,747],"class_list":["post-888748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-na","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}