By Chris Oddo | Thursday August 17, 2017
In the wake of his straight-sets loss to Frances Tiafoe at the Western and Southern Open, Germany’s Alexander Zverev says there were times during the match where he was so depleted that he was basically running on fumes.
“I'm completely dead right now,” Zverev told reporters. “I have been dead for the past two days. I mean, I finished the match. Could have easily pulled the plug in the second set. But I'm not going to retire just because I'm tired. And he's too good of a player to beat him when I'm in this stage.”
He added: “I don't take anything away from him. He did a great job of finishing the match, but I think in the middle of the second set, I was about a 10% of what I can play.”
Zverev saw his 10-match winning streak snapped, but he takes comfort in the fact that he has established himself as a Top 10 player and also a serious contender to go deep at the U.S. Open, where the ATP player field is significantly hampered due to injuries.
Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka have already pulled the plug on the season. Andy Murray is in doubt and has not played since Wimbledon and Milos Raonic might end up pulling out of New York as well.
More important, Zverev is pleased with the amount of winning he has been able to do in North America. He won his fourth and fifth titles of the season at Washington, D.C. and Montreal.
“I mean, I just played, what, 12 matches in a two-week span?” he said. “I have won one ATP 500 event and one ATP 1000 event in the last two weeks. I beat a lot of top-10 players and have beaten a lot of great players, a lot of tough matches.”
This week Zverev hit the wall, and he says he might not have played the tournament had it not been for his promise to join doubles specialist Leander Paes in the doubles draw.
“I'm not a machine,” he said. “So I'm tired, yeah. There is no hiding it.”
Zverev and Paes fell in their first match, and now that the German is out of the singles draw he can put down the racquets for a few days and build up his reserves. For an extremely fit 20-year-old that has not suffered any serious injuries this season, it will likely be a simple task.
“I feel the best I have ever felt maybe going into a slam,” he said. :That gives me a lot of confidence, and hopefully I can show that on court, as well.” Watch out, New York.
But for now, he’ll hit the beach.
“I'm going to take three, four days off and play a little bit of golf or go to the beach, something like that. Not touch the tennis racquet.”