After beating Djokovic – is Zverev fully back?

Alexander Zverev beat Novak Djokovic on day two of the World Tennis League in Dubai. An important step on the way back?

by Jens Huiber

last edit: Dec 21, 2022, 07:53 am

Alexander Zverev was at least at eye level with Novak Djokovic again on Tuesday

Alexander Zverev didn’t care about the mitigating circumstances of his victory against Novak Djokovic at the exhibition fight tournament in Dubai. After the Serb put a ball behind the baseline and Zverev was 6: 3 and 6: 4, the German turned briefly towards his box and got the confirmation he deserved for his strong performance against Djokovic.

Extenuating circumstances, you say? First of all, you have to say that Djokovic and Zverev, like all other participants in the so-called World Tennis League, are sent to a court that is either very dark yellow or orange, depending on your assessment. The ball cannot be seen by the TV viewers, but it can be seen by the players – this court has nothing to do with the conditions under which Zverev has been training with Dominic Thiem for the past few days and under which future comparisons with Djokovic will take place .

Then Novak Djokovic seemed to want to introduce his best Goran Ivanisevic incarnation to the fans as well. Be it with serve-and-volley variants, be it with network attacks that were not always perfectly prepared. So a feast for Alexander Zverev, who is still one of the best defensive players in the world. Will Djokovic be so offensive in the fourth set of a quarterfinal at the Australian Open? Definitely not.

Zverev is certainly not Djokovic’s dream opponent

And finally, the no-ad rule is being played with in Dubai. Which neither Zverev nor Djokovic preferred in any way. But it won’t happen on the tour. The most interesting thing is that Zverev mostly chose the forehand side as a setback for the deciding points.

So is the German number one already back? One does not know. In any case, a lot of things looked very promising again. And even in Saudi Arabia, despite the smooth result against Daniil Medvedev, not everything was bad for Zverev. Perhaps this much can be said: Nobody would want Alexander Zverev as an opponent at the Australian Open. Neither does Novak Djokovic. It doesn’t matter which round.