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NITTO ATP FINALS

November 16, 2017

Alexander Zverev

London, England, United Kingdom

J. SOCK/A. Zverev

6-4, 1-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Good match, but at the end that double-fault was nervous or you took a risk? It was key.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: There was no risk. It was about a 19 mile-an-hour serve that I hit in the bottom of the net.

Q. No risk?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: There was no risk involved.

Q. You came to this tournament as one of the favorites to maybe progress in this group with a high ranking. Sock had the lowest ranking in the tournament. Do you feel the pressure got to you at all today?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I choked. It's quite easy. Won the second set 6-1. I was 1-0 with a break. He got a point penalty. I was down 1-4 within 10 minutes where I didn't put many balls in the court. When I got back at 4-5, that's one of the worst games I think I played all year.

So, yeah, I just choked.

Q. In any case, you've had a great year starting in Australia. Your interpretation of the year is good?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, it's been an awesome year. Still, the end of the year was absolute crap for me. If I would have played the whole year like I did, by the end of the year I don't think I would have finished top 50. Yeah, that's a bit unfortunate for me.

But that's okay. I'm going to go on holidays now. I'm definitely going to enjoy that. Then I'm going to work hard in the off-season.

Q. How would you rate your first experience in London? How eager are you to get back here in the future?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, it's an amazing tournament. It's an amazing experience. I think I had two very good matches against Cilic and Roger. This one from a tennis perspective was okay until the third set. I think there I started to play really bad.

But that has nothing to do with tennis. That is more myself and nerves, what I put in my head.

Q. How do you go about dealing with those nerves going forward? How do you address that mental situation when you have that problem of choking in sport?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Look, normally I kind of try to work it away. But I'm on holidays now. I'm going to enjoy my brother's wedding. I'm going to do that in the Maldives. I'll get over it.

Q. Is there any specific area of the game you'll work on during the off-season?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, in the off-season I'm going to do three weeks of physical again, then start tennis, just do all the basic stuff again. Try to get back to where I was beginning of the year, try to maybe improve even more.

Q. You say you felt you were choking. At that point do you think that you hit your way out of this, you become more tentative, patient?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, I found my rhythm again in the middle of the third set. I got the break back. I started to play I feel like better until the game of 4-5. That was one of the worst games I think I played, not only in this match.

Q. It's understandable that you're pretty disappointed right now. You had a great year, as we said before. What is the biggest regret that you have in this year if you think of Verdasco, Raonic, Coric or Sock? Is there one that sticks more up in your mind, that you think you should have won that? Is that Raonic, for instance?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No, I think this one maybe, and the Coric match. The Coric match for me was the worst tennis level match that I've played maybe all year long.

This one was okay tennis-wise. It was just nerves, nerves getting in the way. Yeah, they got the better of me.

Q. I was going to reverse that question a little. You obviously are ending the year on an unfortunate, sad note. What would you pinpoint through the season that stands out as your best achievement?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: The two Masters titles.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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