Last month’s Roland Garros title was a culmination of well over a decade of hard work for Alexander Zverev.
Like him or not, he deserved this Grand Slam title, having widely been recognised as the best to have never won one before this triumph.
However, the reaction afterwards was somewhat unconvincing.
Many praised his ability to take advantage of the absence of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, but struggled to see him backing it up again once they were both back and at their best.
It’s fair to say he’s already gone about proving those detractors wrong.
Alexander Zverev silences doubters after Roland Garros title
Although he is yet to play his Wimbledon final against Sinner, in all honesty, the result of that match will do little to undermine this argument.
After all, nobody expected this from the German, who has historically struggled on grass.
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And yet, his passage through to the final has been supremely straightforward.
People had always earmarked Roland Garros as his best chance to win a major, and so when he did, they were vindicated. However, they likely then expected a severe underperformance in the next Grand Slam.
Instead, Alexander Zverev is now a back-to-back major finalist for the first time in his career, and is certainly in with a chance of doing the unthinkable and completing the Channel Slam.
His head-to-head record against Sinner might be daunting, but all those matches were played before he was a Grand Slam champion.
Sinner said he’d noticed a change in Zverev recently. Perhaps that could be the catalyst that makes him truly competitive against the Italian for the first time in a while.
Alexander Zverev’s straightforward run to the Wimbledon final
It feels like Zverev has barely even had to break sweat during his run to the Wimbledon final, dropping just two sets all tournament thus far.
That is, despite facing some truly tricky opponents en route to arguably the biggest stage in tennis.
His campaign got underway against the talented youngster Alexander Blockx, whom he defeated in four tough sets, three of which went to a tiebreak.
He then enjoyed far easier wins over Valentin Royer and Marcos Giron, before facing Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round.
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This is an accomplished grass-court player, and yet even he was handily dismissed by the new world number two.
Taylor Fritz was injured during their clash, but Zverev still had to perform, and he did, again winning in straight sets.
Most recently, Arthur Fery saw his magical run sadly come to an end, again unable to trouble the 29-year-old despite his best efforts.
