Melbourne: Milos Raonic kept his cool to reach the quarterfinals Monday as young Alexander Zverev went into meltdown and crashed out of the Australian Open.
The fourth seed erupted in frustration and fury during the second set of a 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) drubbing by the Canadian 16th seed, hammering his racquet into the ground eight times to leave it a mangled mess.
“I just tried to stay composed,” said Raonic after the match.” It worked extremely well for me today. I played incredibly good, did a lot of things extremely well.”
Zverev was tipped as a future Grand Slam champion after a breakthrough 2018 that saw him win the ATP Tour Finals, beating Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the process.
Instead it was a familiar tale of woe as his much vaunted-talent deserted him again before he could reach the sharp end of a Major.
All seemed well when the World No.4 broke former World No.3 Raonic’s formidable serve in the opening game of the match. “I was glad I turned around that start quickly,” Zverev, however, then lost the next nine games in an error-strewn display.
Zverev committed eight double faults and 16 unforced errors against only eight winners as the first two sets evaporated in 63 minutes. He fought hard in the third, but was always fighting a lost cause.
He stopped the flood of mistakes in the third set and took it to a tiebreak, saving two match points along the way. But it was too little, too late.
AFP