By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday April 11, 2023
Alexander Zverev gave an interview to Eurosport recently, where the German expressed his belief that he had a chance to win Roland-Garros last year. Of course, those chances went up in smoke when Zverev tore three ligaments in his ankle and was forced to retire against Nadal, down a set and in a second-set tiebreak.
For sure, Zverev was playing great, better than many expected, but the fact that he squandered a big lead in the first set was definitely playing against him as he toiled in the second set in a brutally physical match that lasted a mind-boggling three hours and three minutes, even before two sets were completed.
In a recent promo for his new documentary, Zverev said the following about the harrowing experience.
"Two things are missing for me: No. 1 in the world and a Grand Slam and I could have done it all in that one week," he said.
In an interview with Eurosport this week, Zerev said the following:
"Not to sound arrogant, Rafa is the best player to ever play on this surface. You never know what will happen in a match like this. Of course I can also lose the game if I don’t injure myself, but I had the feeling that I was playing better than ever on this surface. For some reason I felt like I could at least compete with him – and I have.”
It doesn’t sound all that arrogant to express the belief that he felt he could have won the match and perhaps even won the tournament. A little presumptuous? Yes, that's more like it.
As far as believing he could have won the match and the tournament... That is what we expect elite-level players to believe. Whether Zverev could have done it is another story, of course, but credit to Zverev for being honest about his feeling.
There are some big names who feel that Zverev may be taking it a bit too far, however. One of them is Ivan Ljubicic, who tweeted the following on Tuesday:
“Nobody wants to sound arrogant but everyone is claiming to have almost won Roland-Garros last year. Love it! On with the trash talk.”