Yet another Grand Slam where Alexander Zverev disappointments everyone with his performance. Zverev came second best against Denis Shapovalov in the fourth round clash and bowed out of the Australian Open. He lost 3-6, 6-7, 6-3 in straight sets.
The German was visibly disappointed with his performance at the post-match press conference as he pointed out that he did not play like a World No. 3 and took complete responsibility for this defeat.
It was a match where Shapovalov proved that he has arrived and is already ready to go up against the top players in the current circuit. His 77% first serve statistics was too good for the German tennis star.
Zverev was brave enough to admit that he already had signs of a bad match even before the start. He revealed how he was not in the right shape and was not playing at par right from the start of the Australian Open. He also added that the only match where he played well was against Australian John Millman.
“I was playing bad the whole week. To be honest, I didn’t think I was playing that great. Except against John Millman maybe I had a good match, but the other two matches weren’t great either,” said Zverev.
The 24-year-old German also highlighted how he came to Melbourne to win the Grand Slam and achieve that World No. 1 ranking but at that he felt all of that was baseless. He took complete blame of his failure and also felt like he never played like a World No. 3 and was not good enough for the Canadian throughout the game.
“It’s no one else’s fault. It’s not the coach’s fault, it’s not my team’s fault, it’s no one else’s fault. It’s purely me. At the end of the day, as the world No. 3, I have to take responsibilities for the things I do and don’t do. Today was, yeah, was just not good enough to beat someone like Denis,” added the young German.
Lastly Zverev went on lauding Shapovalov’s performances and state how the Canadian has improved and completely deserves to feature in the quarterfinals. “I mean, look, I obviously, I give credit to Denis. It’s incredible he’s in the quarters. I think he deserves it. He’s done a lot of work. He’s improved his game. But I’ve got to look at myself, as well,” mentioned Zverev.
World No. 14 Shapovalov is all set to feature against 20-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. It will be a huge clash for the Canadian but some people believe that his current form can help him find a way past the Spaniard.
