A gutted Alexander Zverev was left to rue his luck after his hopes of reaching a first Australian Open final were dashed by a Daniil Medvedev comeback on Friday.
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For only the second time in his career, the German let slip a two-sets lead, having led 5-4 in the fourth-set tiebreak with two serves to come only to go down 5-7 3-6 7-6(4) 7-6(5) 6-3 in four hours, 18 minutes.
Zverev cursed his luck at 5-5 in the fourth-set tiebreak, when Medvedev’s chopped return came off the frame and dropped just over the net for a winner.
But the sixth seed said he was more bothered by the fact that he was feeling below par as the match went on.
“End of the second set I started to lose energy. I started to not feel so fresh anymore,” he said.
“I mean, I am a bit sick. I got a bit sick after the (Carlos) Alcaraz match with a bit of fever and stuff like that, so that obviously didn't help the recovery, and I did play quite a lot.
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“So, yeah, just loss of energy a little bit in the end of the second set. Against him, it's impossible to play when you're not 100 per cent physically, because he's literally someone that really doesn't give you anything.”
“Obviously I was very close in the third and fourth set, but I wasn't the same player as I was the first two sets anymore. I was kind of just hanging on. I was not losing my serve, but I felt like in the first two sets I was really on top of his serve a lot, but that kind of went away in the third set.”
Zverev’s only other loss from two sets up came in the 2020 US Open final, when Dominic Thiem came from behind to take the title away from him.
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Zverev’s disappointment was more focused on his health, having played well at the United Cup and then in Melbourne, especially in the quarterfinals when he beat second seed Alcaraz in four sets.
“It kind of took the chance away,” he said. “I was playing well enough throughout the whole Australian trip. I lost it because of a physical state, not because of tennis. That is, for me, disappointing. That's probably the first time or one of the first times in my career that that has happened.
“But the other thing is I can be also proud of myself because I did everything I could. I did all the work in the off-season, did all the work here in Australia. I was focused, I was concentrated, but things happened out of my control, in a way.
"It's not my last chance, hopefully.”