Alexander Zverev's Journey at the US Open: Haunted by 2020, Driven in 2024
Alexander Zverev walked off court exhausted and elated, a French Open champion dragged into a near five-hour dogfight in the very first round of his latest Grand Slam campaign.
“I’m just happy I won,” he told the ATP Tour afterwards, the relief obvious. “Incredible battle. A lot of ups and downs. Nearly five hours for a first round. I think this is the longest first-round match I’ve ever played in my life.”
The words fit the scene: a player who has lived on the edge in New York before, still chasing the one that slipped away.
Haunted by 2020, driven in 2024
Zverev’s relationship with the US Open is complicated. In 2020 he stood on the brink of his first major title, two sets up on Dominic Thiem in the final, only to watch it unravel. Four years on, that night still sits with him.
“I still feel like I should have won in 2020, that doesn’t change,” he admitted in a press conference last week. The scar hasn’t faded, but it fuels him.
Since then, the German has rebuilt, reshaped and pushed back into the sport’s elite. A Wimbledon final in July underlined his resurgence and restored his belief that he belongs at the sharp end of every Slam. Asked where he fits in this draw, he answered with a mix of realism and quiet defiance: “I feel like I’m one of the 128 players that are favourites in the draw.”
It was a line that sounded almost throwaway, but it captured his mindset: no guarantees, no entitlement, just a man who knows he is in the fight.
The constant presence in his box
Through all of it – the heartbreak in New York, the breakthrough in Paris, the Wimbledon run and another bruising five-set opener – one face keeps reappearing in his player’s box: Sophia Thomalla.
The 29-year-old has spoken often about the importance of stability away from the court. Thomalla has been that constant, his girlfriend of more than five years and a familiar figure during his biggest moments, watching on as the tension builds point by point.
Who is Sophia Thomalla?
Thomalla’s story begins in East Berlin, where she was born on October 6, 1989, just weeks before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Acting runs in the family. Her parents, Simone Thomalla and André Vetters, both worked in the industry before separating in 1995.
She spent her early childhood in Berlin, then moved with her mother to Cologne and Kleinmachnow, drifting between cities as her mother’s career evolved. That early exposure to the spotlight shaped her own path into public life.
Thomalla is known in Germany not just for her work on screen but for her striking body art. She started getting tattoos young and never shied away from bold choices. One of her most talked-about pieces carries the name and birth date of actor Sven Martinek, who dated her mother in the late 1990s, a detail that once lit up the German tabloids, including Klatsch-Tratsch.
It is a background steeped in show business, headlines and scrutiny – a world not so far removed from the one Zverev inhabits on tour.
A pairing built for the spotlight
Their partnership has evolved in parallel with Zverev’s career arc. As he has fought through injuries, near-misses and finally a Grand Slam title in Paris, Thomalla has remained a regular in his corner, riding the emotional swings that come with best-of-five tennis at the highest level.
When matches stretch towards midnight and nerves fray, cameras inevitably cut to the box. Zverev’s team leans forward, eyes fixed. Thomalla is there, part of the inner circle, part of the story.
Now, as he shoulders the weight of unfinished business in New York and the memory of 2020 lingers in the background, Zverev steps into another US Open campaign with a major title on his résumé, a marathon first-round win under his belt, and a familiar face in the stands.
The question is no longer whether he belongs at this level. It’s whether this time, on these courts, he can finally close the chapter that has been open since that long, painful night against Thiem.
