NEW YORK—If you’re disappointed by Alexander Zverev’s lack of success at the Grand Slams so far, your feelings likely pale in comparison to those of the young man himself. After his last two defeats at majors, Zverev hasn’t been shy about venting his frustrations.

“I feel like every set, except the fifth one, I should have won, and should have won easier,” Zverev said after squandering a two-set-to-one lead over Milos Raonic in the fourth round at Wimbledon. “I mean, it’s just frustrating.”

If anything, Zverev was even more incensed after his four-set, second-round loss to Borna Coric at the US Open on Wednesday.

“It’s upsetting. Today was upsetting. The way I played was upsetting. The tournament so far is upsetting for me,” Zverev said. “I know I could have done some big things here. I know that I could have done something that I haven’t done before. But I won’t. It’s just as simple as that.”

The word “rant” is overused, but that was a rant.

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The thing that Zverev “hadn’t done before” was reach the quarterfinals or better at a major. This US Open, more than any Slam before, was the logical time for the 20-year-old German to make that breakthrough. He has won five tournaments in 2017, including two Masters 1000s; this summer he won 10 straight matches in Washington, D.C., and Montreal; he cracked the Top 10 and nabbed the No. 4 seed at the Open. He even had the good fortune to land in the much weaker bottom half of the draw. When the highest seed in that half, Andy Murray, pulled out, Zverev become the favorite to reach the final.

But while Zverev was lucky with his draw at a macro level, he was unlucky at a micro level. In the second round, he ran into a buzzsaw. Coric—also 20, and also a card-carrying member of Generation Next—had obviously seen the headlines about how Zverev was the future of tennis. Once upon a time, Coric was also called the future of tennis, and he seemed determined to remind everyone that, while he’s ranked 61st to Zverev’s sixth, he still has a big future in this game.

“Of course I needed it,” Coric said of his win. “I just went out there, I was fighting. I gave my best. I gave my all. I left it all on the court.”

Coric’s effort was remarkable for its stubbornness; even down love-40 on his serve at the end of the fourth set, he would not be denied. With a few weeks’ perspective, maybe Zverev will look back and realize that Coric put in an extraordinary performance on that day.

For now, though, Zverev can only wait until next year to take his next crack at a Slam. What can he learn from his losses in 2017?

After Wimbledon and the Open, Zverev harped on his own missed opportunities. In both cases, and in other matches this season, he has tended not to go for the throat when going for the throat was called for. Zverev, an offensive player and a shot-maker, was too content to engage in long rallies with Coric, who loves to grind.

On other occasions this year, Zverev has let his opponents hang around even after he had established his superiority. One example was his win over Denis Shapovalov in Montreal earlier this month. Zverev was clearly a more polished and complete player than his 18-year-old opponent, but he struggled to deliver the knockout blow in the second set.

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Watching the two of them play one after the other on Wednesday, I started to think that Zverev could take a lesson or two from the younger player. While Zverev is taller, stronger and more solid overall, Shapovalov was much more daring, slashing and creative in his play. The Canadian didn’t use his energy to grind and work the ball around and run forever, the way so many players do today; he used it in short bursts to take over points and decide them on his terms.

Zverev never found that kind of freedom against Coric. His point-changing shot, the down-the-line backhand, wasn’t in evidence for most of the night. After winning the first set, he let Coric hang around. That’s a dangerous tendency in best-of-five play, where there’s plenty of time for a losing opponent to make his way back into a match.

If Zverev needs to improve anywhere, it’s in his ability and willingness to move forward and close out points after he has gained an advantage. Shapovalov, in his match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, showed how much better he has already become in that area. He stuck volleys that he was missing three weeks ago in Montreal. A few of those types of volleys would have gone a long way for Zverev against Coric.

Does Zverev’s failure at the majors signal problems to come? I don’t think so. He’s still smart and level-headed; still surrounded by an excellent support system in his family; still ahead of most of his peers—not just in terms of his skill, but also in terms of his professionalism and ambition. Zverev has come too far to be satisfied with anything less than winning majors.

And he’s not the first player to stumble out of the blocks at those events. Zverev right now is in roughly the same position that Roger Federer was in at 20, in 2002. That year Federer rose to No. 6, won his first Masters event in Hamburg and reached the final of another in Miami. But that year Federer also lost in the first round at the French Open and Wimbledon, and failed to get out of the fourth round at any Slam. He would lose in the first round again at Roland Garros in 2003, a defeat that made him wonder where his career was heading. We know now where it was heading, of course; a month later, Federer won the first of his 19 Slams at Wimbledon.

Federer, like all Grand Slam winners, had to learn how to play with the pressure of “now.”  As in, “I’ve shown that I can win at smaller events; now I have to show that I can do it when it matters.” It can be a crippling feeling at first, and lead a player to pile extra pressure on himself.

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Zverev seems to have succumbed to that temptation this year. After his loss to Coric, he said that it wasn’t the new expectations that got to him. It was his own knowledge, proven by his win in Montreal, that he was capable of so much more.

Afterward, Zverev was asked about his hopes for the rest of the season; his answer was a terse one, but a good one.

“I just lost the second round of a major where I shouldn’t have lost,” he said, “so I’m not thinking about the rest of the year.”

That Zverev doesn’t want to put this defeat behind him and move onto the next tournament isn’t such a bad thing. He knows that the Slams are the next step; he knows they’re what counts, and he’s not going to pretend otherwise. Deep down, he’s angry because he knows he’s too good not to go all the way at the majors. Which makes me think he’ll win plenty of them eventually.

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Zverev isn't the first talented player to disappoint early at majors

Zverev isn't the first talented player to disappoint early at majors

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