Two facts here. Zverev is the second German to win the US Open, after Boris Becker in 1989. And before he even played this final, he had broken a German record: 24 Grand Slam match wins in a single season, against 22 for Becker in 1989.
Roland looked at the table of numbers for a long while, and said nothing.
In 1989, nobody counted wins per season. We counted titles, and we counted them on one hand. Today we add up the second rounds, we turn it into a record, and everybody is delighted. I’m not criticising. I’m comparing. Note that I’m not against progress. I’m against this progress. Well. It’s the times.
The rest of the tally would suit him better. Zverev is the fourth man of the Open era to win two majors in the season of his first, after Jimmy Connors in 1974, Guillermo Vilas in 1977 and Jannik Sinner in 2024. He is the fifth active player with more than one major, alongside Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Stan Wawrinka. And he is the first man born in the 1990s to win two.
Six years ago, on the same court and in an empty stadium, Zverev led Dominic Thiem two sets to love in the US Open final and lost. He remains the only player in history to have won a Grand Slam semi-final from two sets down, then lost the final from two sets up. Roland reckons that sentence, at least, stands up without a spreadsheet.
Six years to come back and win on the same court, honestly, it took me four seasons to get back on court 4 after my tendinitis, so I understand the process.
Across the season, Zverev is 25-2 in Grand Slams: Alcaraz at the Australian Open, Sinner in the Wimbledon final. Roland put his paper magazine away and said that, for a Sunday evening final, it was all right.
It’s true, we checked: Tennis Majors.
