China Open: Alexander Zverev’s second-round loss to Malek Jaziri brings forth the doubts all over again

The racquet smash has a special place in tennis. It is enshrined in folklore as evidence of a champion player losing his or her composure, and also as evidence of why some players are less successful (or likeable) than others.

“Roger Federer is such a gentleman on the court.” “Oh, but didn’t you see how he totally disrespected the sport AND his opponent at the Miami Masters back in 2009, when he smashed his racquet to smithereens?”

“I wonder why Benoit Paire has never achieved anything substantial despite being so talented.” “Well, haven’t you seen all those YouTube  clips of his epic racquet smashes? The dude wastes so much energy trying to destroy his racquet, he has nothing left for the match.”

But sometimes, the racquet smash can be more than just a spicy footnote that gets people talking. After hitting a backhand wide to lose his second round match against Malek Jaziri in Beijing yesterday, Alexander Zverev’s first reaction was to fling his racquet on to the ground. Considering the moment at which it came – racquet smashes after losing a match are rare – the gesture seemed emblematic of a deeper malaise that went beyond mere anger or disappointment.

During the claycourt season this year, Zverev was soaring high, even taking sets off Rafael Nadal. Back then, it looked like the German would make good on all his potential quicker than anyone could have hoped.

The early losses at the previous few Slams were starting to look like anomalous blips, especially after he registered his first quarter-final appearance at Roland Garros. Surely it’s just a matter of time before Zverev turns the Big 4 into the Big 5, our gullible thoughts told us.

But the clay-court season was a long time ago. Since then, Zverev has gone back to the passive play which characterized his downward spiral last fall, and which has been a regular feature of almost every single Slam loss he has suffered the last two years.

Zverev’s post-RG results read like this: opening-round loss at Halle, third-round loss at Wimbledon, title win at Washington, quarter-final loss at Canada Masters, opening-round loss at Cincinnati Masters, third-round loss at US Open, and second-round loss at Beijing. Barring that Washington run (which had arguably the weakest draw among all the tournaments he’s played in), Zverev has spectacularly failed to live up to his ranking.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this – at least not after Zverev announced, just before the US Open, that Ivan Lendl had joined his coaching team.

We all know what Lendl can do as a coach, and how he can turn a frail forehand into a force of nature. Every one of Andy Murray’s Slam wins has come with Lendl at his side, and in every one of them, he has used his forehand to dictate the pace of play in a most un-Murray-like fashion.

In some ways, Zverev has similar problems with his game as Murray once did. He tends to hit his forehand with a little too much loopy spin and fails to put away short balls with it as efficiently as the Big 3 do. He also doesn’t use his down-the-line backhand nearly as much as he should, although that may be a strategic choice rather than a confidence-shorn debility.

Still, Zverev’s forehand doesn’t seem to be such a big weakness that it should lead to crippling defeats against the Robin Haases and Malek Jaziris of this world. He can generate plenty of power off it, especially when going crosscourt and in any case, his serve and backhand are big enough to make up for the deficiencies in his game – or anyone’s game.

In fact, to a casual viewer, it would be hard to pinpoint exactly why Zverev loses the matches that he does. He seems to play the same way whether he’s winning or losing; the only obvious way to tell how his fortunes are going is his body language. If he is yelling a lot of “Come on!“s, he’s usually on top. Any other kind of behaviour, and it means he’s in trouble.

So why has Zverev been struggling so much lately? For one thing, the serve has not been his friend. Or to be more precise, the first serve has not been his friend. This may not be apparent at first glance, but Zverev’s game is unusually serve-reliant. When he’s landing his first serve in at a percentage that’s close to 70, he gets so many easy putaways that his forehand problems are rendered insignificant. But when he’s forced to hit a lot of second serves – as he was against Jaziri – he gets into a disadvantageous long rally almost every second point.

His net game can also turn into a liability on a dime. He has improved his volleys over the last couple of years, but they are still nowhere close to being reliable. Add the fact that he makes quite a few forays to the net, and that means he will always be in danger of losing a big point to a mistimed volley.

The big points are another area of concern; he’s been losing a few too many of them recently, and often because of a sudden burst of inertia. He hits crisp down-the-line backhands all through a set, but the moment he goes set point down, he forgets everything that happened up to that moment and goes crosscourt 13 times in a row, after which the opponent comes to the net and knocks off a volley winner.

There are quite a few things that Lendl can help with, most notably the big point mentality and the forehand. But some things – like the first serve percentage – are entirely down to Zverev himself. And certain other things – like the net game – can only improve with time and practice.

Or we could all be wrong about this, and the root of Zverev’s problems may be something else entirely. Something that he himself doesn’t know. That would at least explain the racquet smash at the end of his match against Jaziri. When you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, you tend to act out in violent ways.

The good thing about all this is that Zverev still has plenty of time on his side — it is easy to forget that he is just 21. The bad thing is that while he is on this journey of self-improvement, he’s been throwing a few too many petulant tantrums (and racquets) for his sportsmanlike image to remain intact.

Lendl may not be able to help a lot with that last bit. But if he can get Zverev back to winning ways again, the tennis world at large would be grateful.

After all, who wouldn’t want to be spared the sight of the misplaced racquet smash, the kind that makes us think long and hard about what it all means? That’s something that’s best left out of the tennis experience.