WIMBLEDON, England — Alexander Zverev is used to being the “third man” in tennis.
Following his French Open title, he reached his first Wimbledon final and hopes to do even more in the future.
Despite losing to Jannik Sinner on Center Court on Sunday, the 29-year-old Zverev believes he is closer than ever to bringing the Big Three back to tennis, challenging top-ranked Italian and his main rival Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner and Alcaraz had won the previous nine Grand Slam tournaments before Zverev won his first major at Roland Garros this year.
“The conversation was always, ‘Who’s going to be the third one?'” Zverev said. “I was always the third guy, but I was far away from those two. But in a way I was always the third guy. So if I could get closer to them…that would be great.”
Alcaraz missed this year’s French Open and Wimbledon due to a wrist injury, while Sinner was exhausted by the heat and lost in the second round in Paris. Zverev lost in five sets to Alcaraz in this year’s Australian Open semifinals, and on Sunday he overextended his knee in the third set and lost to Sinner 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4.
“I think I’ve been pushing them,” Zverev said. “We didn’t beat them this year, but I can say we pushed them to the limit.”
Had it not been for Zverev’s slip on the match’s only break point in the third set, he might have been able to push Sinner further. The German fell to the ground, clutching his right knee in pain, but Sinner came over to check on his opponent and helped pull Zverev off the grass.
Zverev said afterward that he overextended his knees, which hindered his serve, his biggest weapon.
“I was having a hard time pushing my serve out a little bit, which slowed down my serve speed,” he said. “But other than that, everything was fine. We were moving well from the baseline, and we were playing well from the baseline.”
Despite the loss, Zverev will at least shed his “third man” moniker in a sense – he will overtake Alcaraz for second place in the rankings on Monday.
Zverev had never made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon until this year, but he seems to have finally figured out how to play on grass.
“I’m 29 years old, but this is the first time I really believe that we can win this trophy,” Zverev told the Center Court crowd after the loss.
Sinners also seem to share that belief.
“It was a very close game today. I’m very confident that if we play like this we can get this (trophy) at home too,” Sinner told his opponents. “I know your goal is to be number one in the world. You’re getting very, very close. So we have to be very careful right now.”
