Tennis Acumen

Alexander Zverev Makes Inroads vs. Novak Djokovic in 2021 in 269

PETE ZIEBRON

Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic played five matches in 2021 with the Serb winning three times.  However, it was Zverev that ended the Golden Slam dreams of Djokovic in Tokyo in the Semifinals.  Then at the end of the year, the German once again eliminated the world #1 in the semis at the ATP Finals.

Prior to the Olympics, Djokovic won the previous four meetings and held a 6-2 H2H advantage.  Currently the series stands at 7-4 but Zverev has made progress against Djokovic.  

After dropping the opening set 6-1 in Tokyo, Zverev won twelve of the final sixteen games to advance to the Gold Medal match and ultimately win Gold.  Again they would meet in the semis on a grand stage, this time at the US Open where Djokovic was now attempting to hold all four majors in the same calendar year.  The Serb won in five sets but had little left for the final and lost to Daniil Medvedev.

Next, yet again in the semifinals of the ATP Finals, Zverev prevailed over Djokovic and would then hoist the Finals hardware to conclude a stellar season.

Djokovic was one set away from the Gold Medal match and was rolling.  Still, Zverev played solid tennis despite the lopsided 6-1 scoreline in the opening set.  The German continued to serve big, just as he had in the first set, stayed the course with his game plan, and was rewarded with a tremendous victory.

The two men played a total of eighteen sets in 2021.  Djokovic won ten and the two split the four tiebreakers that were contested.  ONWARD! 

 

 

Aleks Vukic: Favorite Cities on the Tour

In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed Australian Aleks Vukic at the Champaign Challenger tournament. Here is a part of that conversation:

Tennis Acumen: You've done some traveling. What are your favorite cities on the tour?

Aleks Vukic: London and New York. New York is just smashing. I love big cities and New York is unbelievable. London, I had a great experience this year. I played Queens at  this tennis center that it's in the suburbs of London. You walk in through the building, and you walk to the other side and this grass court complex just appears out of nowhere. And in the middle of that, I was playing Jason Jung, who's playing here this week. He and I played the qualifiers there at Queens. We were playing on the back courts. It's surrounded by apartments in the middle of the suburbs. OK, and in those apartments, there were two balconies with Aussie flags. Families just sat out watching, cheering me on from their balconies. And that was one of the coolest experiences I've had. And I love London. My brother studied there for a few years, and I love London as a city and it's very similar to Australia, the people.

 

 

Tennis Acumen: So, what would you go out and do if you had free time: sample the food, go sightseeing?

Aleks Vukic: This year has been different because of Covid. Yeah, but I'd just go experience it. There is so much to do. It's endless, you can do whatever you want. I like the outdoors. And you have live music, restaurants, bars, that kind of stuff. And meeting cool people. It's more about that.

 

 

Tennis Acumen: So, it's more about the people. as opposed to the place.

Aleks Vukic: Yeah, but I also keep my circle pretty, tight as it is. So, I do just like to experience things with them, basically.

 

 

More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.

Tags: aleks.vukic, Vuki_SMASH23