Patrick McEnroe, whilst full of praise for Novak Djokovic, was not happy with Alexander Zverev’s performance last night.
The German raced into a one-set lead against his 38-year-old opponent, and was expected to use his youth and physicality to continue dominating the rest of the proceedings.
However, he did not account for the ingenuity and brilliance of the Djokovic drop shot, which manoeuvred him around the court with ease.
Djokovic’s immediate post-match reaction was captured by Jon Wertheim, as he cut an excitable figure to have reached the French Open semi-finals.
However, such happiness was likely also because of just how easy Alexander Zverev made it for him by refusing to change his tactics.
Patrick McEnroe shocked by Alexander Zverev decision vs Novak Djokovic
Naturally, McEnroe was stunned by the manner of this result, but not by the longevity of the man who accomplished it.
He stated: ‘What amazes me about Djokovic is his will. The will that he continues to possess when he goes out there. You can see at different times in this match he was struggling a bit physically, I think that is going to be a factor for sure in the semi-finals against Sinner, but he has this excess energy that just comes from I don’t know where.
‘He obviously takes care of himself like nobody else that we have ever seen but it’s his desire. His desire to keep doing all the things he does off the court and he just flat-out manhandled Zverev. Quite frankly I was a little bit surprised by how Zverev went away in the second and third set, especially in the third.
‘And Djokovic to me, even though this was a physical match, it was pretty routine the way he ended up winning. I didn’t think it would be, I thought it would go the business but Novak took care of business pretty efficiently for him in best of five in a quarter.’
He then dived into a more tactical analysis, continuing: ‘Novak started to get a feel for the match early in the second set. The defending was there. It was like, as the match went on, we started to see more and more of this [drop shots].
‘Because Zverev’s positioning is terrible. He is too far back and when Djokovic pulls him in with the drop shot, not only does he not get it a lot of the time, but when he does get it he doesn’t really do anything with it because he doesn’t have great hands.
‘It’s very unimaginative play from Zverev. In fact, he may be the best player that has literally no imagination with what he’s trying to do. He hasn’t improved enough, he hasn’t attempted to do things differently.’
Does Alexander Zverev need to change up his game?
Zverev, as a baseline grinder, is actually one of the best the sport has to offer.
His consistency is unparalleled, using his long frame to keep the ball in play with minimal fuss.
However, as McEnroe alludes to, his game therefore lacks creativity at times.
Novak Djokovic’s performance is the perfect example of how a slight change-up can make all the difference. He too is rock-solid from the baseline, but decided that, to truly take the game to his opponent, a slight tweak was needed. He rained down 35 drop shots in total, and won the match in four sets.
Zverev has been one of the world’s top players for so long now, yet persists with the same uninspiring routine. It works against 90% of the tour, but when facing the likes of Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and especially Carlos Alcaraz, those chances of success are severely reduced.
It does not have to be wholesale changes, as his game is already elite. He just needs to add a few more unexpected tools to his arsenal to make him a more well-rounded threat to the world’s best players.
