Australian Open 2019: Alexander Zverev suffers meltdown as Milos Raonic cruises into quarter-finals

The No 4 seed battered his racket into the ground in a frustrating match for the German as the big-serving Canadian moved into contention for the title

Perhaps it is something to do with the heat. The Australian Open has produced some spectacular racket-smashing moments and staged another here on Monday as Alexander Zverev made an angry exit from the tournament.

Zverev was beaten 6-1, 6-1, 7-5 by Milos Raonic in the fourth round in the latest of a growing list of disappointments for the 21-year-old German at Grand Slam tournaments.

Two months ago Zverev was celebrating the biggest victory of his career when he won the Nitto ATP Finals in London, but on this occasion he never looked like finding the form he had hit at the O2 Arena, where he beat Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in successive matches.

Zverev’s anger poured out during a changeover when he trailed 4-1 in the second set. The world No 4 pummelled his racket into the ground eight times before hurling it to one side. “It made me feel better,” Zverev said afterwards. “I was very angry, so I let my anger out.”

He added: “I played bad. The first two sets especially I played horrible. It's just tough to name one thing. I didn't serve well, didn't play well from the baseline. Against a quality player like him, it's tough to come back from that.”

The incident brought back memories of Marcos Baghdatis taking successive rackets out of his bag and smashing them here seven years ago. During a changeover in his defeat by Stan Wawrinka, the Cypriot smashed four rackets in succession, the last two without taking off the plastic wrapping.

Zverev admitted that he might have paid for his shortened off-season following his triumph at the O2 Arena. Having played all the way through to the last day of the regular season, he took a short holiday in the Maldives and then posted pictures of himself on Instagram back in the gym in Monte Carlo just 17 days after his London victory. Nineteen days later he posted a picture of himself in Perth preparing for his first tournament of the new season.

Milos Raonic celebrates defeating Alexander Zverev (AP)

The German’s story is similar to that of Andy Murray after the Scot won at the O2 Arena in 2016. Murray, whose coach at the time was Ivan Lendl, who now works with Zverev, had a similarly short winter break before beginning his pre-season training and went on to lose in the fourth round here, to Zverev's brother, Mischa.

For Alexander Zverev’s sake you hope that the parallels will end there as Murray had a number of physical problems that year and in the summer suffered the hip injury which has dogged him ever since.

“For sure I didn't have a very long off-season, didn't have a lot of rest,” Zverev said. “But this is us as tennis players. I'm happy how the season ended. I wouldn't want it the other way.

“When do you prepare yourself physically? You can't really do it in the season. That's the only time. You have to adjust. It's always give-and-take. If the season is 11 months long, it's always give-and-take in what you do, how you rest, and how much work you put in. That's just how it is for us tennis players.”

Alexander Zverev reacts during his match vs Milos Raonic (EPA)

In his 15 appearances in Grand Slam tournaments Zverev has now reached just one quarter-final, in Paris last year. His last six Grand Slam defeats have all been against lower ranked opponents and he has never beaten a top 20 opponent at a Grand Slam tournament.

That sequence never looked like ending as Raonic rapidly took charge. Zverev broke in the opening game of the match but then lost 12 of the next 13 games. He improved in the third set but Raonic, the world No 17, won the tie-break at the end of the third set 7-5.

“It was a miracle that I reached the tie-break and even if I had won it I don’t think I would have won the match,” Zverev said afterwards.

However, the German insisted that he was not feeling depressed. “It's fine,” he said. “It's a tennis match. I have learned to take tennis matches as tennis matches and not the end of the world. If I would think it's the end of the world every time I lose a tennis match, I would be very depressed about 15 to 20 times a year, so I'm not going to do that.”