Sinner, Alcaraz encourage Zverev to seek out new areas of enchancment, irrespective of how small | ATP Tour

Match Response

New World No. 2 Zverev says he hasn’t damaged Sinner-Alcaraz duopoly but

German set to compete in twelfth Masters 1000 ultimate

November 02, 2024

The grind by no means stops for Alexander Zverev.

After securing a complete semi-final victory over former champion Holger Rune on the Rolex Paris Masters Saturday, Zverev headed to the apply courtroom, searching for incremental enchancment that he hopes will enable him to problem the duopoly on the high of the boys’s sport.

“For me, it is about enhancing a couple of issues. I really feel like Jannik [Sinner] and Carlos [Alcaraz] are doing a couple of issues higher than me in the mean time. I wish to enhance,” stated Zverev.

“I wish to enhance not for tomorrow, not for right now, or due to the matches I performed right here. I wish to typically enhance for subsequent 12 months as nicely.”

Together with his win over Rune, Zverev notched his sixty fifth win of the 12 months and tied Sinner for probably the most wins on Tour this season, in line with the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. He additionally overtook Alcaraz and climbed to the No. 2 spot within the PIF ATP Stay Rankings. The German believes they’re nonetheless at a better stage and that he must work laborious to catch up.

“It is good to be again on the highest place that I’ve been thus far. In fact, I wish to get larger. However for me, Jannik has [had] the very best 12 months this season, and Carlos had the second-best 12 months. He received two Grand Slams,” he shared.

“I do know that I am forward of him within the rankings, however he received Wimbledon and Roland Garros. These are two huge titles. So, they’re nonetheless the 2 finest gamers on this planet, for my part, in the mean time.”

The 27-year-old, who is ready to compete on the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held from 10-17 November in Turin, is strategising to maintain up along with his two largest rivals, and is specializing in rising his depth to match the extent of aggression that they convey to their respective video games.

“I feel after they get a straightforward ball, after they’re in an attacking place, 90 per cent of the time the purpose is over, whether or not it is a winner or an unforced error. That is how laborious they hit the ball, that is how aggressive they’re. I feel in that facet I can enhance. That is what I am making an attempt to do,” he stated.

“Jannik has improved rather a lot this 12 months. There are some issues Carlos has improved. I feel Novak, over the previous 15, [or] 20 years, has improved each single 12 months. For those who ask him whether or not he is a greater tennis participant final 12 months, to illustrate 2023 or 2022 even, or 10 years in the past when he was youthful, I feel he would say that he is a greater tennis participant now.”

After struggling a severe ankle damage on the 2022 Roland Garros and persevering with to get better from it in 2023, the 27-year-old is happy to return to his finest stage. Contemporary off his maiden Grand Slam ultimate on the 2020 US Open, Zverev had received six tour-level titles in 2021, together with the Nitto ATP Finals, and was halfway by the most effective Roland Garros semi-finals of the Open Period with Nadal with tragedy struck.

“There was a interval the place it was shifting in the direction of the route of a bit of little bit of a change, after which 2022 I felt like I used to be going [in] an excellent route at Roland Garros. I used to be going [to] hopefully to attain my dream of successful Roland Garros. I used to be No. 2 on this planet. I used to be very near changing into World No. 1, as nicely. It was getting into that route, after which there was a two-year cease to that course of. [For] two years I used to be not aggressive for Grand Slams, not aggressive for World No. 1 and people issues,” he stated.

“So I am completely satisfied to be again the place I’m. “There was by no means a assure that I might be again at this stage. For certain for me, it is an important satisfaction to be again, however once more, I wish to enhance and I wish to go even larger.”

The German, chasing his seventh Masters 1000 title, will play Frenchman Ugo Humbert in his twelfth Masters ultimate in Paris on Sunday.