Vienna 2021: The Day Zverev Tamed the Young Tiafoe in the Final

The final of the 2021 ATP 500 tournament in Vienna offered tennis fans a very beautiful spectacle.

Alexander Zverev and Frances Tiafoe faced each other for the seventh time on the ATP tour. The German then led 5-1 in their head-to-head, but their last meeting dated back to the Beijing tournament two years prior.

To reach the final in Austria, the American, who came through qualifying, successively eliminated three seeded players: Tsitsipas (1) in the 2nd round (3-6, 6-3, 6-4), Schwartzman (8) in the quarter-finals (6-4, 7-6), and Sinner (7) in the semi-finals (3-6, 7-5, 6-2).

From the first balls, the tone was set. Zverev, the heavy favorite (seed No. 2), had to work hard to counter the vigor and youth of Tiafoe, who didn't give up anything. The American, then 23 years old, confirmed his meteoric rise in the tennis world by giving a tough time to a Zverev who was nevertheless in great form.

Result: victory for the German 7-5, 6-4 after 1 hour and 35 minutes. For reference, the player had already won 4 titles this year, including two Masters 1000s: Madrid and Cincinnati, as well as a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

But that's not all, as Zverev would even add the ATP Finals to his season's list of achievements (victory against Medvedev in the final: 6-4, 6-4).