Mischa Zverev didn't have a plan B. He didn't have it two years ago and he didn't have it two nights ago against Andy Murray. Fortunately, plan A worked.
His plan A in life was to be a tennis player, but it was not working. He was in his mid-20s and his peers were in the top 10. He had beaten Andy Murray in the European Cup under 16s but then all that promise crumbled among many injuries.
![Germany's Mischa Zverev stretched himself to beat world No.1 Andy Murray.](/web/20170311012249im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/x/4/1/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtx0qg.png/1485154551034.jpg)
He had herniated a disc, had fractured ribs and then badly fractured a wrist. His arm was in a sling and he couldn't even hold a racquet. His ranking had dropped out of the top thousand, no, out of the top 1100.
He had nothing to do and nowhere to go so he figured he might help out some teenage friends of his talented younger brother whom his parents coached a bit. They were playing futures tournaments through America's southern states and he offered to go along and help them out. They said OK..
It was here, bouncing around motor inns and eating takeaway in crappy south Texas towns he realised he shouldn't be too hasty to give upon his own plan A in life. Plan B was grim.
"Nothing against south Texas, but we went to really small towns, playing futures, no hospitality. You stay at hotels, eat at Subway. You do all that stuff," Zverev said.
"I realised, a): I missed playing myself; and b) I still felt like I could do some damage on court. I felt like I was still pretty young and I started missing tennis myself. As soon as I started feeling better, my wrist was better, I started my off-season 2014 in November with my brother and I felt like, let's try it again."
That began a long road back that arrived most spectacularly two years later when he defeated world No.1 Murray in Melbourne on Sunday. A night earlier his much younger brother Sascha had taken Rafael Nadal to five sets in a match that announced him as tennis' next generation in a way that, in contrast, prominent local players had not.
Mischa was born in Russia 10 years before Sascha, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, where the family now live. The brothers are close despite their age difference and the teenager was the ingenue whose infectious enthusiasm drove him to reapply himself to life's plan A and succeed.
Mischa finally got a break with his body and found that not only was his game still there but his time away had given him a mental resilience that gave him an edge on others. Hence he had the confidence on Sunday to know that when plan A is a good one do not jump too quickly to plan B. Besides, against Murray he knew that if A did not work there was no B.
Plan A was to play a high-risk game that demanded confidence and persistence. It was a game that had to be played without self-doubt. He played a game that was aggressive and in modern tennis terms, strikingly unconventional. He played a serve-volley game, coming to the net an extraordinary 119 times.
It was from the book of heresy that also outlaws tactics such as kicking a football long to a big man in the goal square or advising opening batsmen to leave more balls than they hit. Crazy old tactics will never work.
Murray played well but was discomforted by this surprising and necessarily inventive game.
"I knew there was no plan B really. Like, I can't stay on the baseline, a couple feet behind the baseline and try to out-rally him. He's very strong physically. He has a good baseline game," Zverev said."I knew I had to come in. That was my only chance to win. So, yeah, honestly there was no plan B for me, so that's all I could do."
But he had to be comfortable with the risk he was taking, he had to be comfortable seeing Murray whistle balls back past him yet stick at his game. That confidence to persist was something that was borne of years of toil and disappointment and hours spent in southern Texas towns eating Subway.
"I believed in my game. I believed that playing serve and volley against him and slicing a lot, trying to destroy his rhythm was going to work, which it did in the end," he said."I felt comfortable going, like, three, four sets, even though it wasn't that hot, but it was still pretty warm. I felt like I could hang in there with him, you know, sometimes rally and come in quickly. I feel like everything just worked out well.
"I always say it takes longer to develop a serve-and-volley game because eventually you're going to get passed a lot, especially when you're younger, you play top guys. Like what happened to me two weeks ago in Brisbane against Rafa, He killed me 1 and1. I really felt like I had no chance. I feel like if you're younger and you feel something like that on the court, you get discouraged quite easily. You change to 'let's stay on the baseline, let's try to get somewhat of a rhythm going'.
"I feel like it's a very different mindset you need to have as a serve and volleyer. You need to go to the net, get passed for two sets. Like what happened with Isner, I lost two sets. I was still trying to stick to the same game plan.
"It kind of changes in the end. If it doesn't, then you just walk off the court, you say, 'Well done, you passed me too well'."
Plan A worked against Murray, who visits the net as often as he smiles, but can it work against Roger Federer, the man who has plans A through to Z?