Alexander Zverev fell short in his quest to become the Canadian Open champion for a second time.
The German entered the tournament as the top seed with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz absent in Toronto.
Zverev reached the semifinals, but Russia’s Karen Khachanov stood between him and the championship match.
After a hard-fought contest, it was Khachanov who prevailed in a final set tiebreak to advance to the Canadian Open final, where Ben Shelton awaits.
Alexander Zverev wants to be braver with his shots in matches but that was not the case against Karen Khachanov in Canada
Alexander Zverev is working hard to try and refine and improve areas of his game.
The 27-year-old is desperate to win a Grand Slam title, but he failed to win a major in the era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and the Serbian remains a thorn Zverev’s side.
Though Federer and Nadal have now retired, Zverev now has Sinner and Alcaraz to contend with, but he is not backing down from the challenge.
As he continues to work on his game, Zverev says he aims to be braver and take some more risks with his shots.
However, he was unable to execute in the way he planned against Khachanov, who claimed a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 victory at the Canadian Open.
“I thought I was very brave in the tiebreak, I just missed. That’s one thing that I wanted to change, it’s one thing I wanted to work on,” Zverev said.
“I feel like I was brave today in the tiebreak, it didn’t work out, it’s as simple as that. I missed some balls that, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have missed, but that’s the way it is.
“But as I said before, generally I wasn’t feeling the ball well, so it’s normal that you miss a little bit more than usual in these kind of situations. But that’s okay, I mean, we move on. I have another chance in a few days time in Cincinnati.”
Alexander Zverev is upset after losing to Karen Khachanov after having a match point
Zverev had a golden opportunity to close out the Canadian Open semifinal against Khachanov.
He held match point when Khachanov served down 5-6 in the final set, but the world number three’s return found the net.
The match was decided by a tiebreak and Zverev produced more mistakes on the way to defeat. He registered 22 backhand unforced errors and seven double faults in an untidy performance, and he was not very happy about it.
“I didn’t feel my best on the court, didn’t play my best tennis,” Zverev added. “Also, the first set was terrible, so I kind of gave him a head start, and he’s too good to not use that.
“So, yeah, I still had match point, so it’s upsetting that I lost this match. But that’s the way it is, we move on, I go to Cincinnati and try to do better.”
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