Mark Petchey, a former tennis player, feels Alexander Zverev’s serving troubles are technical rather than mental.
Alexander Zverev has a history of having service issues at crucial times, and that was the case again on Friday at the Indian Wells Masters.
Zverev, seeded third, was upset by Taylor Fritz, who came back from a set down to beat the German 4-6 6-3 7-6 (3) and go to the Indian Wells semifinals.
He squandered two match chances against Fritz, one of which he double faulted.
“As much as people think Zverev serve issues are mental I don’t believe they are.
“The racquet comes from so far from the right that it ends up promoting the ‘waiter’ position before the throw at the ball.
The racquet travelling on this diagonal doesn’t help him at all,” Petchey explained.
As much as people think Zverev serve issues are mental I don’t believe they are. The racquet comes from so far from the right that it ends up promoting the ‘waiter’ position before the throw at the ball. The racquet travelling on this diagonal doesn’t help him at all pic.twitter.com/pGs8UvYZqM
— Mark Petchey (@_markpetchey) October 15, 2021
Zverev shocked by the loss
No. 2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was beaten by Nikoloz Basilashvili earlier in the day.
Top-seeded Daniil Medvedev was knocked out in the round of 16 by Grigor Dimitrov.
Following the eliminations of Tsitsipas and Medvedev, Zverev considered himself the favorite to win the tournament. Zverev would have faced Nikoloz Basilashvili in the semifinals if he had defeated Fritz.
“Today was just not really my day, to be honest. I was close to winning, but the level of tennis was just not quite there for me,” Zverev told reporters, per Tennishead.
“Today mentally is not easy for me. My next tournament is (in) Vienna.
“Hoping I can deal with it well there, but right now I just want to go home. “It was a very long season. I have played well.
“But this one hurts because I knew that after Stefanos lost this morning, I was kind of the favourite to win this tournament, but my tennis wasn’t there yet”.
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