Justine Henin blasted Alexander Zverev’s US Open efficiency as “a disappointment” as a result of she felt the German had a fantastic probability to win his first Grand Slam however did not have the braveness and in the end didn’t ship.
After Novak Djokovic suffered a shock US Open third-round loss and Carlos Alcaraz misplaced within the second spherical, the German tennis star had a transparent path to creating the ultimate, the place his hardest attainable opponent may have been Jannik Sinner.
However simply when the 12 months’s French Open runner-up began being talked about as the highest favourite to return out of the underside a part of the draw and attain the ultimate at Flushing Meadows, his run got here to an finish within the quarterfinal following a 6-7 (2) 6-3 4-6 6-7 (3) loss to Taylor Fritz – who then went on to make the ultimate earlier than shedding to Sinner.
After blasting 42 unforced errors and seeing his run in New York come to an finish sooner than anticipated, Zverev used the phrase “horrible” when assessing his efficiency from the baseline and admitted that he “did nothing to should win.”
Henin on Zverev’s US Open exit
And after the 27-year-old criticized his personal play, the Belgian former seven-time Main winner famous that the brand new world No. 2 merely needed to discover a approach to do extra.
“Zverev is a disappointment. There have been expectations. For me, it’s primarily the style. I discovered him extraordinarily defensive. At one level, you say to your self that to win a Grand Slam, and he got here near doing it at Roland Garros and on the similar time thus far, he has to dare much more,” Henin stated on Eurosport France.
“In opposition to Fritz, I noticed him fall again into his previous methods. I feel there are robust selections to make to win a Grand Slam match, notably on calendar points. It was his 73rd match [of the season]! He can spotlight his backhand that allow him down, however for me it goes additional than that. And in some unspecified time in the future, you need to save your self and discover your peak kind, Djokovic is the grasp on this space.”
In the identical interview, the Belgian tennis legend that Zverev nonetheless has “quite a lot of issues to work” in his recreation.
