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US OPEN

September 2, 2019

Alexander Zverev

New York, NY, USA

D. SCHWARTZMAN/A. Zverev

3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you reflect on the match, where you're feeling mentally now. A lot of double-faults.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: The usual (smiling).

No, I mean, it's been a much better week for me than it's been in the last few months. Yeah, I can take positives out of that. I mean, obviously it was difficult conditions for me. It was very slow out there. The court was playing very low and very slow. Actually the opposite of what would be preferred for me.

But, you know, credit to him. He played a great match. I thought he was playing very aggressive. You know, he's playing well.

Q. It was an even match until the third game of the third set. Do you think that made a difference?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think the momentum changed actually in the second set, where I had four or five breakpoints in one game and I didn't make them. I think that was more the momentum change.

Obviously third set, it would have been nice to kind of get the break. But I got the break a game after that, so...

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of factors. I had a lot of chances which I didn't use early in the match. He kind of ran away with it.

Q. What is most striking to you about Diego's game, given his height?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: How aggressive he can be still. How early he can take the ball. Generally, he's playing well. When he plays like that, he obviously hasn't lost a set until today in the tournament.

Played a good match today. I still had my chances. Very upsetting that I lost.

Matches like that happen, especially if I didn't play well the last few months.

Q. On your serve specifically, last year at the World Tour Finals, I remember you dropping like 140-mile-an-hour bombs, untouchable. Seeing you today, 68-mile-an-hour second serve. What has happened on that shot? Seems like it's fallen apart.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: My first serve is still fine. My second serve needs to be worked on. But I'll deal with it.

Q. Seemed like a technical change.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No.

Q. Have you been following Daniil Medvedev's exciting adventures here? Is it good for the game? Some people say it's great. Some people say he's over the line. What is your feeling?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I mean, I said it two days ago in my press conference. There's a lot of young guys that do things on the tennis court that maybe is not the best thing to do. I don't want the next generation to be known for that.

I think a lot of the times Tsitsipas gets over the line with changing his shoes 15 times in a tournament, going to the bathroom in the middle of a set. Stuff like that...

Let your tennis racquet talk for you kind of. You don't need to do things to distract the opponent, try to win that way.

Medvedev is obviously going over the line a little bit now. But he's winning. He's in the quarterfinals. He's playing Stan. At the end of the day it all doesn't matter if you're winning.

But, yeah, I hope some of the NextGen or the young guys will kind of learn from the older guys like Roger and Rafa who have been unbelievable over their career, really let their racquet talk for them, not try to distract opponents, something like that.

They're winning right now. I hope that kind of changes in the NextGen, as well.

Q. When you had the point penalty, you had the discussion with the umpire, you asked Diego if he heard it, he said he didn't, what did you think of that moment?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I mean, code violation is fine. I didn't even argue that. But neither of us heard me getting a warning in the first place. So it was like, Okay, a warning is fine, it's no problem, but why am I getting a point penalty?

He said he gave me a warning before.

I didn't hear it. Diego didn't hear it. Most of the crowd didn't hear it. Okay, it happened. It happened. It's fine. I think the umpires next time should let me know about it.

Q. What did you think about him supporting you?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: It was not supporting. Just asked him, Did you hear?

He said, No, I never heard it as well.

He's not going to lie about it. No point in doing that.

Q. You played two five-set matches, a grueling third-set match. Any fatigue an issue today?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No, I had some things that were bothering me because of the fall I had two days ago. I couldn't practice freely yesterday. Warmup was tough today. My right hip and my back is very swollen because of the fall.

But other than that, fatigue... Obviously it was very tough matches, but I feel fine.

Q. How do you see for the rest of the season?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: We'll see how it goes. Obviously, as I said, this week there's been a lot of positives. I want to build on that. I want to get better.

The Grand Slam calendar is done for me. It's not been the best, it's not been the worst. Generally my season so far has not been the best. Actually, Grand Slams were not actually worse than my season like they were last year and two years ago. I hope I can attack them next year.

Q. Do you feel your game is on track to go deep in slams next year? Do you think you're on the right track?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: It's tough to say now. I mean, obviously, yes, I think I'm improving things. I think I'm getting better at things. I need to get things back.

We'll see.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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