Alexander Zverev’s forehand is misbehaving like an unattended garden hose.

The 27-year-old German committed 19 forehand errors in the first (and only) set of his semi-final against Novak Djokovic on Friday. The forehand was all over the shop. By contrast, Djokovic made just nine forehand errors before forfeiting the match due to injury.

Djokovic clearly targeted Zverev’s forehand in the important moments, and Jannik Sinner will undoubtedly copy and paste that strategy in Sunday’s Australian Open men’s final.

Sinner’s forehand is humming; Zverev’s forehand is spraying.

The Italian Sinner will be happy to go toe-to-toe crushing forehands with the German from the back of the court to establish baseline ascendancy in the final. Zverev, on the other hand, showed us on Friday that he doesn’t even really want to hit a forehand.

The lone set against Djokovic provided an ideal script for how Sinner can dominate baseline exchanges in the final: it will be an avalanche to the German’s forehand.

In the opening game against Djokovic, Zverev shanked a second-serve return straight to the ball boy at the net. Every player on tour knows Djokovic loves to serve second serves down the T in the ad court. Zverev should have been sitting on this location and dispatched the ball with venom back to the Serb. Instead, he couldn’t find the strings.

The 1-1 game provided the perfect example of the pressure Zverev’s forehand will be under against Sinner. Zverev gained his first break point with Djokovic serving at 30-40. The Serb started the point with a second serve and Zverev ended it with a routine........

© Brisbane Times