Alexander Zverev's Incredible Battle at the US Open
Alexander Zverev walked off court exhausted and elated, the kind of drained that only a nearly five-hour first-round scrap at a Grand Slam can produce. The reigning French Open champion had just survived what he called an “incredible battle… a lot of ups and downs,” and as he told the ATP Tour, it felt like the longest opening match of his career.
“I’m just happy I won,” he said, and he meant it.
Zverev’s relationship with the US Open is complicated. In 2020, he stood on the brink of his first major title in New York, only to see it slip away against Dominic Thiem in a five-set final that still lingers in his mind.
“I still feel like I should have won in 2020, that doesn’t change,” he admitted last week. There was no self-pity in the delivery, just a clear memory of a missed chance. Asked about his status in this year’s field, he added with a wry realism: “I feel like I’m one of the 128 players that are favourites in the draw.”
Through the peaks and crashes of that journey, one constant has sat just a few metres away, usually expressionless, sometimes tense, always there: his long-term girlfriend, Sophia Thomalla.
The woman in the box
Thomalla has been a fixture in Zverev’s player box for more than five years, a familiar presence during his run to the Wimbledon final in July and during his renaissance on clay in Paris. Cameras often find her as Zverev stalks the baseline, but her story runs far deeper than a cutaway shot between points.
Born in East Berlin on October 6, 1989, Thomalla grew up in a household that already understood the spotlight. Her parents, Simone Thomalla and André Vetters, are both actors. They separated in 1995, and Sophia’s childhood became a tale of movement and reinvention: early years in Berlin, then relocations to Cologne and Kleinmachnow with her mother.
The performing arts were never far away. Nor was a taste for making statements. Thomalla is known in Germany for her striking body art, a gallery of tattoos that has become part of her public identity. She started young, and one of her most talked-about pieces carries a deeply personal twist: the name and birth date of actor Sven Martinek, who dated her mother in the late 1990s, inked permanently on her skin.
It is the kind of decision that underlines her willingness to live visibly, to embrace scrutiny rather than hide from it. In that sense, she and Zverev share a certain defiance. He does it with a racket in hand and a baseline to patrol. She does it in front of cameras and on red carpets.
As Zverev fights to turn regret from 2020 into redemption in New York, Thomalla remains in her usual seat, eyes locked on the court, riding every rally with him. The question now is simple: how far can this latest “incredible battle” carry him in a tournament that still owes him something?
