Alexander Zverev out of Wimbledon after defeat to Arthur Rinderknech as seeds tumble

New York Times

6 hours ago

THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev is out of Wimbledon after a five-set defeat to Arthur Rinderknech of France in the opening round.
The Frenchman, who is a talented grass-court player but has never gone beyond the third round of a major, triumphed 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4 in a match played over two days. It was suspended at 1-1 Monday night, after Zverev won the second set just a few minutes before the 11 p.m. curfew at Wimbledon.
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For Zverev, the defeat extends a miserable run of form since he lost to Jannik Sinner in January's Australian Open final. There have been some decent results during those six months, but he's been unable to generate any real momentum. The defeat to the Italian world No. 1 was his third loss in a Grand Slam final and a second in seven months. It added to the sense that he has been becoming tennis' nearly man for some time. Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick recently called him the best men's player not to win a major.
The manner of the defeat, meanwhile, demonstrated how lacking in confidence Zverev is, and how unable he is to impose himself on opponents. Rinderknech produced an often outstanding performance, but he was also handed the initiative by Zverev's passivity. The German allowed his opponent able to rush the net and take control, where he won 44 of 55 points.
Zverev stands at 6 feet 6 inches (198cm) and boasts phenomenal power when he chooses to tee off, but he often opts to simply exchange groundstrokes and hope his opponents will make mistakes. Rinderknech, who got tight at several key moments, did make them, but Zverev could not keep him behind the baseline long enough to force the issue.
It's a tactic that works for him more often than not against players of Rinderknech's level, but it does leave him vulnerable while playing the role of antagonist, rather than protagonist, which is atypical for a world No. 3. Rinderknech possesses a huge serve, which is particularly potent on grass, and it helped him get out of trouble throughout. He saved nine break points in the match, including five in the first set, which Zverev had much the better of but ended up losing in a tiebreak.
After Zverev evened things up, he let out a huge roar, and it looked as though he would return the next day to finish the job. Instead, Rinderknech flipped the script and broke twice in the third set to get himself ahead. Zverev then couldn't convert any of the four break points he had in the fourth set, and then found himself 5-3 down in a tiebreak. From there, he produced a rare display of aggressive bravery, including a 135 mile-per-hour second-serve ace to go up 6-5. Zverev shouted at his box after nicking the set, but it was another situation in which it took a desperate scoreline to bring out his best tennis.
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And he couldn't sustain that level in the decider. Rinderknech broke early in the decider and having blinked in the fourth set tiebreak with the finish line in sight, just held his nerve to record only the second top-10 win of his career, aged 28. He earned three match points with a foray to the net, and after two tight misses, swept away a backhand to take the upset.
Zverev is the 12th men's seed of 32 to exit Wimbledon in the first round this year, while Rinderknech will face lucky loser Cristian Garín of Chile in the second round Wednesday. For the German, the exit confirms the sense that he's currently going backwards, regressing from nearly man to not even close.