It is quite the sound when a tennis ball is pulverised by Alexander Zverev as he serves. There is the crack of racket on ball. The gasps from the crowd. And then the oohs after they glance at the speed gun.
And Taylor Fritz, who had a better view of Zverev’s howitzers than anyone else at Wimbledon on Wednesday, reckons his serve will prove too hot to handle for Arthur Fery in the semi‑final on Friday and possibly anyone else left in the men’s draw.
“Zverev is going to be incredibly tough to beat with how well he’s serving,” Fritz said after losing 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 against the German in just under two hours. “That’s not something that I feel really changes from day to day with him. I feel like you can kind of expect that he’s going to show up and serve at least 70% first serves, bombs. He’s playing with a lot of confidence.”
There were certainly plenty of bombs on No 1 Court. Zverev’s first serve averaged 131.7mph and his second 115mph. The stats show that no one at Wimbledon this year has served harder. Incredibly, despite his obvious power, the German had never got beyond the last 16 at Wimbledon until this year. But he is eagerly awaiting his match against Fery – even though he knows that 15,000 people on Centre Court will be willing him to lose.
“I’ve been on tour for long enough,” he said. “I feel like I’ve seen the most hostile crowds, I’ve seen tough crowds, I’ve seen unfair crowds as well. I feel like I should know how to handle it, I’ve learned how to handle it. I’m OK with it.
“I think it’s going to be a great atmosphere. Of course, I know that 99% of the people will be cheering for him. But I also enjoy those kind of atmospheres. I enjoy it when the energy is very high. I always feel like the English crowd here, especially in London, they’re always quite fair. So I just look forward to a tough challenge in the semi-finals of a slam.”
While Zverev, the No 2 seed, will be the overwhelming favourite, he insists he will not be taking Fery lightly. “The first time I watched him play was actually in Australia,” he said. “He beat [Flavio] Cobolli in the first round. I was very impressed back then already. He has a very clean technique and very clean ground strokes. I thought he was a very good tennis player already, back then.
“Of course, it’s maybe a surprise that he’s in the semi-finals. But I think he deserves it. The wins that he had, the way he fought back in a couple of those matches, is great to see. It’s a great story.
“Last year at this time I was practising on the hard courts already. It is a dream come true to finally play well at Wimbledon. I’ve waited a long time for it.”
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What made Zverev’s convincing victory against Fritz all the more remarkable was that his opponent had actually beaten him in their past seven matches. However, there was a caveat as the tendinitis in Fritz’s right knee flared up after three games and he needed treatment. Yet the American graciously admitted that he would have struggled to deal with Zverev in this form, even at his best.
“I felt like, just because I was thinking about the knee, my focus was kind of all over the place,” he said. “But he was very aggressive with his forehand and his backhand as well. Very aggressive. Hit the ball great. He played really well and did a lot of things that are big improvements to his game.
“He’s changing direction a lot with the backhand. He’s serving such a high percentage, good spots. Really pulling the trigger with the forehand.” Fery has been put on notice. And so, you have to believe, have Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic.
