(SATSports) – Germany’s Alexander Zverev crushed Russia’s Karen Khachanov 6-3 6-1 to clinch the tennis singles gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, the win being the biggest of his career thus far.
The 24 year old, carried the momentum from his semi-final match, where he upset world number one, Novak Djokovic and he seems to be playing the best tennis of his career.
The German administered the first blow of the final with ruthless baseline tennis complimented by a smash at break point to take a 2-1 lead. It just seemed like his day as he way nailing all his shots to consolidate the break. He had a couple of rough games towards the end of the first when he started missing some shots but sealed the set off a forehand volley miss from the Russian for his second break of the match.
As if losing the first set wasn’t a big enough blow for Khachanov, his opponent seemed locked in right after the set break, taking off the first game with a 144km/h backhand winner which came with a huge roar.
A patient second game from Alexander gave him the early break and he backed it up with a hold of his own to get a 3-0 advantage over his foe. All hope of getting back into the match was lost in the fourth game when Sascha Zverev leaned into another brutal backhand, earning his second break and a 4-0 lead.
While serving for the match at 5-1, the world number five found himself at 0-30, but again he had the answer, winning four consecutive points to clinch the gold, which can be termed as his greatest achievement in the sport so far. He adds the Olympic gold medal to an illustrious career, which has The Nitto ATP Finals and 4 Masters 1000 titles at the age of 24.
The win also means that he is the first man from Germany to win an Olympic singles gold medal. Other Germans who have won gold at the Olympic Games are Steffi Graf in the 1988 women’s singles, Boris Becker and Michael Stich who won the men’s doubles gold in 1992.
(Report Written and compiled Takudzwa Alufeyo edited by Mark Simpson)
