Cut up Zverev vows to bounce back

– Alexander Zverev pledged to bounce back from his bitterly disappointing loss in the final of the US Open on Sunday and capture a Grand Slam one day.

The 23-year-old German went two sets and a break up in his first Grand Slam final before losing in five sets to Austria’s Dominic Thiem.

“I was super close to being a Grand Slam champion. I was a few games away, maybe a few points away,” a dejected Zverev said.

“For me what upset me the most is not the third set, it’s the fifth set,” when he was serving for the championship at 5-3.

“I had a lot of chances in the fifth set and didn’t use them,” he added.

The second seeded Thiem beat the fifth seed Zverev 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) in four hours and two minutes on court.

It was the first time in the US Open’s Open era that a player had recovered from losing the opening two sets to win the title.

It was also the first time the final had been settled by a tiebreak.

Zverev said it hurt to lose in the manner he did.

“Obviously being two sets to love and a break up in a Grand Slam final then losing is not easy,” he said.

Zverev’s debut appearance in the last-two of a tennis major came after he reached the semifinals of the Australian Open earlier this year.

Zverev said the rawness of the Flushing Meadows defeat meant it was too soon to say whether he had taken any positives from going a step further.

“That question is probably two, three days too early to ask right now,” he said.

The German, who came to the US Open ranked seventh in the world, said he was sure he would capture a major in the future. – AFP