Young Zverev beat Alex de Minaur in the quarter-final, in Shanghai. After the match, someone asked him why he bounced the ball.
He answered politely. “All these bounces before serving? It’s a pointless habit, I have to correct myself. If what I do can put someone off, I don’t want to carry on like that.” He thinks of the other person before himself. One doesn’t say that enough.
In New York, it seems he sometimes took ten to fifteen seconds longer between his two serves. Some observers were annoyed, says the article. I picture them, comfortably seated, waiting for the ball.
My husband, God rest him, tapped three times on the frame of the garage door before going in. Every evening, for years. Nobody ever asked him why. The garage never complained, and neither did the door. And nobody in Couvin counted the seconds behind him.
The young man gives himself a few months to change. That’s reasonable. You don’t lose a habit on a Tuesday, you let it go, the way you let go of a cat that has found another home. He’ll serve with two bounces, or one, or whatever he likes.
Padel, I’m told, is served underarm. A misunderstanding with glass walls, it makes no difference.
He has promised to correct himself. Those who were annoyed have promised nothing.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
