TWO against ONE
German starlet Zverev turns to Federer as he seeks a way to tame Murray in Melbourne
If you want advice on how to beat Andy Murray then it is worth going straight to the top. That is what 18-year-old German Alex Zverev plans to do ahead of his Australian Open first round against the world No 2 — consult with no less than Roger federer.
While Novak Djokovic — due to kick off his campaign at the season’s first Grand Slam this morning — is the master of breaking the 28-year-old Scot’s heart, federer is not too far behind.
He has beaten Murray in their last five meetings and Zverev, who gets on well with the great Swiss, intended to seek him out.
‘for some reason Roger quite likes me, he’s always helped me quite a lot,’ said Zverev, an athletic 6ft 6in. ‘He always invites me to practise with him — he always gives me tips on how to act on court, how to behave in different moments.
‘Maybe I ask him a little bit about Andy. Roger has that smooth game when he comes forward a lot with that sliced backhand and everything. He can probably help me a bit with how he sees my game and what I can hurt Andy with.’
Murray is one of four British players in second-day action, with Kyle Edmund due to take on Bosnian Damir Zhumur this morning and Heather Watson up against Hungary’s Timea Babos.
Zverev is an outstanding prospect and part of a generation, including Nick Kyrgios and Borna Coric, who will one day challenge the remarkable dominance of the likes of Djokovic, federer and Murray.
It is probably too soon for it to happen now and you would expect Murray to have a fair passage through the first week before it gets considerably tougher in the fourth round.
The Scot has reached the final four times here, but been stopped every time by Djokovic or federer. Twelve months ago, he was a set and a break up against the Serb before letting his concentration slip when the world No 1 started hamming up aches and strains. Australia is definitely unfinished business.
‘It is a tournament I would love to win but I don’t deserve to win this more than any other tournament,’ said Murray. ‘I do feel that this is the Slam where I have played consistently my best tennis at over the years, but I am going to need to do something a little bit special here if I want to win it.’
While Murray was having another brush with Grand Slam glory last year, Dan Evans was contemplating, not the for the first time, whether he had any future in the sport.
In february, plagued by knee trouble and disinterested, he did not even turn up for a first round match at a futures level event on the Wirral and was fined £350.
Now, having come through the qualifying event, he faces Spanish pin-up and world No 19 feliciano Lopez, who is coming in with precious little form.
Looking back on his travails of a year ago, Evans admitted: ‘My knee just wasn’t right but I wasn’t doing much to get it better either. So it was a bit of both, but the start of it was my knee.’
He is being coached here by Davis Cup captain Leon Smith, who once quipped that he might need to electronically tag the 25- year-old Midlander to stop him hitting the town at night.
Accompanied here by his girlfriend Georgina, sociable Evans has been a model of professionalism, although he maintains it is not a conscious thing.
‘Dry January? Nah. I wasn’t on purpose doing Dry January, but I am. I mean, it’s pretty corny isn’t it, the New Year’s resolution thing.’
However he fares, there is a great opportunity for Evans to climb the rankings in the next six months because he has virtually no computer points to defend until after Wimbledon.
Jo Konta is another who could flourish this year, but she will need to recapture her best form when she tackles Venus Williams.
Aljaz Bedene makes up the British quartet, although the scoreboard on the practice court was still showing him as a Slovenian yesterday. He will have to defuse the power of American Steve Johnson, the world No 32. Bedene is still seething at being summoned to a hearing with the International Tennis federation in November in Prague to adjudicate on his Davis Cup eligibility, and being told on arrival that it was being postponed. ‘It was disrespectful,’ said the British No 2, who is now hoping the matter will be resolved in March. for the locals, the centrepiece of the first round could be the last match played by Lleyton Hewitt, who is playing in his 20th and final Australian Open and bowing out from a career that took him to world No 1 and the Wimbledon title of 2002.
Hewitt, 34, has soldiered on outside the top 10 for the last decade, his game overwhelmed by the power merchants.
These days Australian tennis is no longer bereft without him. The mercurial talents of Kyrgios, Bernard Tomic and Thanasi Kokkinakis mean that there is a promising future ahead in one of tennis’s traditional powerhouses — providing they stay on the rails.