That’s not how I was raised by my parents. “We had our ups and downs, but the way our relationship was described to the public is not how it was. “These accusations are just unfounded, just untrue,” he said when they emerged last year. Zverev is a class above them but less than a year removed from unproven domestic abuse allegations from former girlfriend Olga Sharypova, who alleged he had hit her head against a wall, tried to choke her with a pillow and punched her in the face. The uneven singles careers of Olympic champions Nicolás Massú and Marc Rosset are more cautionary tales. “I hear well.” Where does Zverev go from here? He called this title both the “biggest” and “best” available in tennis and it should be the fillip for a run to his first Grand Slam, as it was for Andy Murray, Wimbledon winner the year after gold at London 2012. Had the hubbub outside disturbed Khachanov? “Yeah of course,” he said drily. He seemed to tune out the first set soundtrack of small but audible protests nearby which threatened to overwhelm even the omnipresent chirping cicadas. The biggest disturbance to his tranquil rhythm was a German flag, flapping distractingly in his eye line during an early service game. Zverev grew into the match, yelling in delight after one stunning backhand winner down the line. There was a hopelessness to Zverev's aces and an ominous finality every time he decamped from his usual baseline habitat and loomed towards the net. By the third game, his sweat had changed his outfit’s colour and the match was already slipping away.īroken in just his second service game, he had few answers throughout to Zverev who forced him onto his weaker backhand, bossed the rallies and deployed a fearsome arsenal of winners. It is a traditional Armenian name for boys but perhaps it was also a Khachanov parental ruse, like the Johnny Cash song A Boy Named Sue, a bid to toughen up their son? Mixed results for that strategy on Sunday's evidence, where Khachanov dressed to blend in, in a T-shirt the same shade of blue as the decorative Tokyo 2020 signs around centre court at the Ariake Tennis Centre. The name has become a punchline, a shorthand for a sort of narrowmindedness. It has been a tough year to be called Karen. So it was Zverev, whose parents played tennis for the Soviet Union, against Russian Olympic Committee member and world number 25 Karen Khachanov. Daniil Medvedev felt like death in the heat. In an Olympics of withdrawals and stars failing to sparkle, this was not the expected men’s gold medal match.įavourite Novak Djokovic fell to Zverev, exiting in a blaze of shattered graphite. But it was his semi-final which will live longer in the memory than this sub-80 minute victory. A dominant 6-3, 6-1 win bolsters his case as a founding father in the new era of male tennis superiority. Is it possible not to break sweat in 35☌ temperatures?Īlexander Zverev gave that impression in sealing the men’s Olympics tennis title for Germany.
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