Australian Open results 2020: Alexander Zverev defeats Stan Wawrinka
Rising German star Alexander Zverev is just two matches away from making his remarkable Australian Open bushfire relief pledge a reality after cruising into the semi-finals at Melbourne Park.
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Alexander Zverev is just two wins away from costing himself $4 million and a few nice cars – but he is more than happy for it to happen.
After advancing to his first grand slam semi-final, the No.7 seed said he fully intended to make good on his pledge to donate his total prize cheque to the bushfire relief fund if he was to win his maiden major.
“It is still true. I hope I can make it happen. I made the people of Australia a promise, I will keep that promise if it happens,” Zverev said.
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“I always said I am not a money driven person, my parents always taught me with money you should achieve things that help others and help the people that actually need the money.
“For me right now, $4 million Australian dollars would be nice, it would be very, very nice. I could maybe buy myself a few cars or something.
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“But there are people that actually need it for their homes, for rebuilding wildlife, for rebuilding houses, rebuilding the life that they once knew, so it is much more important they get that money.”
Regardless of whether his campaign drained his bank account, Zverev hoped his first grand slam semi-final would be the breakthrough he needed to take his game to the next level after hitting back from a first-set slumber to secure his place in the final four.
The German was caught napping in the opening set of his quarter-final against Stan Wawrinka, who raced to a 6-1 lead, but hit back to advance after a four-set victory 1-6 6-3 6-4 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.
Zverev has previously reached the quarter-finals twice at the French Open, but said it was the major breakthrough he had been craving to take the next step at a grand slam.
“It feels awesome, I don’t know what to say, I’ve done well in other tournaments … but I never could break that barrier in a grand slam and I’m happy to be in the semi-finals,” Zverev said.
“Stan played a great match, a great tournament beating Daniil Medvedev last match in five sets and I honestly don’t know what to say.
“You guys cannot imagine what this means to me and I hope this will be the first of many.”
Struggling with his serve and other aspects of his game, Zverev admitted he overcame a crisis of confidence coming into the Australian Open.
“I worked very hard on it (my serve), I worked a lot on it. You can kind of see it in the ATP Cup, it was horrible, but this is a grand slam and this is where you are supposed to play your best tennis,” he said.
“I am doing that. I’ve been struggling not only with my serve, but everything else as well, my forehand, my backhand, my volleys, my drop shot, my slice, my return … waking up in the mornings, everything, it was not only my serve.”
Looking ahead to his potential semi-final opponent, Zverev said he was just hoping for a long and tiring match.
“I will have a cold glass of Coke, sit back in my hotel room with AC hopefully watching them play for six hours and hopefully they will get as tired as they can,” he said.
“That’s my assessment of that match.”
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After Wawrinka raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set, Zverev admitted he had feared the worst after struggling to adjust to the pace of the ball during the day after playing at night.
“I was getting ready to talk to the press why I lost in straight sets to be honest,” he said.
“Then it kind of turned around and my energy picked up a little bit, Stan came out firing. I was not quite used to his ball because I always played at night which was much colder and his ball was much quicker than the previous matches that I played against my opponents and I needed a set to get used to it.
“Thank God it all turned out well.”