Before January 22, 2017, Mikhail ‘Mischa’ Zverev was probably best known as the older brother of 19-year-old tennis prodigy Alexander ‘Sascha’ Zverev Jr. Or the man who was double-bageled by Roger Federer in a match that lasted all of 39 minutes at the Gerry Weber Open in 2013.
But today, in what could be termed as the accomplishment of his career to date, he defeated World No. 1 Andy Murray 7-5. 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Ranked No. 50, Zverev turned pro in 2005 and is coached by his father Alexander Zverev Sr. He achieved a career-best ranking of 45 in 2009, after he reached the quarterfinals of the Italian Open as a qualifier. He then fell victim to a series of injuries that saw him drop to as low as 1,067 in the rankings.
In 2014, he underwent a surgery on his wrist and was forced to stay at home, just when his younger brother’s career was starting to take off. Faced with a prospect of a life without tennis, a determined Zverev slowly began picking up his racquet again. He charted his course to a comeback – from participating in Futures tournaments in 2015 till all the way to ATP tournaments in 2016.
Zverev had an impressive run in 2016, with a few notable wins – beating top-seeded and crowd favourite Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors and Nick Kyrgios in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.
In his post-match interview, Zverev said “My brother always inspires me.” If it was Sascha’s turn to win hearts at Rod Laver yesterday when he almost defeated Rafael Nadal, it was Mischa’s turn today, as he went about clinically tearing apart Murray’s defence. Truly, the Zverev party is on this year.