Novak Djokovic vs. Alexander Zverev
“I mean, look, I know about NextGen tournament,” Novak Djokovic said earlier this week in Rome, “because all I hear these few days is NextGen, NextGen event in Milan.”
Djokovic was answering a question—obviously one he had heard a few times before—about the ATP’s new season-ending tournament, which will feature the top eight players who are 21-years-old or younger. It’s part of an all-out effort by the tour to remind us that it will have a future, even after Djokovic and his fellow members of the Big 4 finally leave the stage. This week, one of the arenas at the Foro Italico was renamed “NextGen.” It sounded like a good idea, anyway, until the players started complaining about the gaping holes in the clay on that court.
After hearing about NextGen all week, maybe it’s fitting that Djokovic will have to face a real-life, living member of that generation in the final on Sunday, when he goes up against Alexander Zverev. The 20-year-old German has had a banner last five days. After sneaking past Kevin Anderson in his opener, he beat Fabio Fognini, and two of the game’s biggest servers, Milos Raonic and John Isner. Earlier this spring, Zverev won his first clay-court event, in Munich, and now he’s into his first Masters 1000 final. He also has three times as many points as his nearest competitor in the race to Milan.
Now would seem to be the perfect time for the leader of the NextGen to prove himself against the best of Generation Now. Zverev will get his chance on Sunday when he faces Djokovic for the first time. Unfortunately for Zverev, the perfect time to face Djokovic may have just passed.
After his hard-edged win over Roberto Bautista-Agut on Thursday, I wondered if Djokovic was finally ready to turn his game around. In that match, rather than let his frustration get the better of him, he used it as fuel. That’s what he has always done when he’s hungry and on the hunt, and that’s what he stopped doing after he won the French Open last year. Over the last two days, Djokovic was back on the hunt in his straight-set victories over Juan Martin del Potro and Dominic Thiem.
With his win over Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, Thiem’s name had risen to the top of the ladder of French Open contenders. Djokovic knocked it back down a rung or two with his 6-1, 6-0 blitz job of the Austrian on Saturday. Again, Djokovic was fired up and focused from the start, and as he did last year in the semis in Paris, he was able to rob Thiem of the time he needs to hit his powerful but elaborate ground strokes. Thiem admitted afterward that he doesn’t like facing Djokovic, while Djokovic said he played some of his best tennis of the past 12 months.
Can Djokovic put a damper on another rising star’s breakthrough week? His game, at its best, seems tailor-made to frustrate Zverev, who relies on getting free points with his serve and working the corners with his long, loopy ground strokes. Zverev may be Next, but Djokovic—for the first time all year—is still Now. Winner: Djokovic
