Alexander Zverev shows a strong performance at the start of the ATP Finals. The German tennis star then caused a stir with a strange interview with a former player.
Alexander Zverev still hasn’t had enough. After his confident opening victory at the ATP Finals against his friend Andrey Rublev, the German tennis star gave a few interviews before returning to the court in the Inalpi Arena - and trained hard for about 30 minutes in front of empty stands.
One of the interviews he did caused excitement and laughter among tennis fans. This was given to former tennis player Laura Robson Sky UK. Robson got to work jokingly and said that Zverev had told her beforehand that he wasn’t even breaking a sweat on the court.
Zverev immediately contradicted himself: “No, let’s be honest. I gave you a handshake. You complained that it was too formal. Then I tried to give you two kisses on the cheek, you said ‘no, you’re sweating. Get away from me.’ What I said is, you complain too much.”
Laughing, Robson replied: “Let’s go to tennis then.” Firstly, it was about Zverev’s performance against Rublev, which he thought was good. However, he missed too many balls from the baseline as he would have liked.
Zverev’s Strange Interview at the ATP Finals
Robson then pointed out that he had only made nine minor mistakes and asked how well could he play?
Zverev paused for a moment before saying: “Everybody, Jannik (Sinner) will tell you he’s still trying to improve. You always have to find ways to get better. In the last games I played better in Paris than here. But that was just the first game – we’ll see how it goes.”
Then the German tennis star stopped again and said to a laughing Robson: “You’re making me nervous during the interview, so I start mumbling, I don’t know what to say anymore.”
From the sporting point of view, things went smoother for Zverev, who won Rubel 6:4, 6:4 in “only” 72 minutes. Due to the recently damaged lungs there were no more problems for him.
“It is not a matter of days, but several months. I feel better, healthier and fitter on the field. But I don’t think I’m at 100 percent,” said Zverev, who reportedly ended up in hospital with a high fever ahead of the Laver Cup in Berlin in September.
A CT scan showed that “25 percent” of the lungs were not functioning. But now he feels “fit again,” Zverev said.
Ideally, he still has four games left in the season finale in Turin before he can fully recover on holiday in the Maldives.
The Tokyo Olympic champion’s next opponent on Wednesday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, who stunned Spain’s top star Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets on Monday afternoon.
By Sports Information Service (SID)
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