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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS WIMBLEDON

July 4, 2017

Mischa Zverev

Wimbledon, London, England

M. ZVEREV/B. Tomic

6-4, 6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. A great win. How do you see the match today?
MISCHA ZVEREV: Well, I thought it was going to be a complicated match because I played him a couple days ago in Eastbourne. I know the way he plays. It's not always easy, because it seems like, you know, maybe let's say he's the opposite of, let's say, Rafa on the court with the intensity level between points especially. But he knows what to do on the grass court, knows what shots to use.

He beat me quite easily a few days ago, so I was expecting very tough match.

Luckily I think I was able to break him in the important moments, especially first set and second set early on. I think I volleyed pretty well and served okay.

I felt like I didn't give him a lot of opportunities to break me or get to a break point, which helped me obviously.

It felt tough, but after the match I sat down and looked at the score, 4, 3, and 4 seems quite easy. But it definitely felt tougher than it was.

Q. Compared to the match in Eastbourne, how will you compare his kind of intensity between the two matches? Was there a big difference?
MISCHA ZVEREV: I think also he didn't feel 100% today, because he called the doctor at some point, and there were a few games when I felt like he was struggling. I don't know what was wrong with him but I could definitely tell he was not 100%.

But then on the other hand it kind of made it almost tougher for me, because I didn't know what to expect, because between points he was walking slowly, and he definitely acted like something was wrong.

But then he would still, you know, if the ball is within reach, he would still hit the ball hard, especially with the forehand, place it well, and hit a lot of winners.

So it was quite awkward, because I felt like, you know, I looked like intense, but still he was hitting way more winners than I did.

Q. Since 2003, Wimbledon has been dominated by the Big 4, by Murray, Djokovic, Federer, Nadal. As someone who is trying to break into winning at the majors like yourself, what is it like to know that you will have to overcome those guys in the process, most likely?
MISCHA ZVEREV: I mean, I haven't looked that far yet. I haven't been in the second round of Wimbledon in the last I don't know how many years.

It's not really one of my concerns to think about, like, what I have to do to beat those top four guys.

I mean, at some point someone's going to beat them. That's just how it's gonna be. But at the moment I haven't thought about it. It's not some of my concerns.

I think in the end, you'd have to be mentally ready to do that. Physically, as well, but mentally be aggressive enough and believe in yourself and not really care about the name on the other side of the net.

Q. We always like to see here at Wimbledon someone who serves and volleys as much as you do. Do you think the way the grass and the balls play, is it still fast enough for people to be able to serve/volley?
MISCHA ZVEREV: Again, haven't played here in the last couple years, but obviously in today's tennis I feel like the groundstrokes have improved so much over the last 10, 15, 20 years. It's different, yeah, because the grass is a little slower and balls are little slower.

But the racquets and the strings, the players, they are so much stronger, they can hit the ball harder. So I feel like the ball travels faster through the air but slows down after the bounce, which makes it tougher for a volleyer.

But I think if you serve really well like some people do these days, I think it's still possible to do it. But for a serve/volleyer to do really well at a tournament like Wimbledon you need to serve and volley for 36 months straight to get the feel for it, to get the rhythm.

And that's not very easy to do, because every time you want to serve and volley you have to be ready. You either going to get past or you're going to miss an easy volley or you're going to win the points.

It's like flipping the coin every day 365 days a year, you have to flip a coin 200 times a day and then hopefully you win the majority of those coin tosses. To me, that's how it is when you serve and volley because you never know what's going to happen, and the point is going to be over in a split second.

I think it's possible but you need to be able and ready mentally to do it for months and months at a time and be okay with, like maybe lose 2 and 2 to someone, get passed 75 times, but then still be okay the next day you do it.

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