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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 23, 2020

Alexander Zverev

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

A. ZVEREV/E. Gerasimov

7-6, 6-4, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Is there less pressure on you, and that might help you?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: If there's less pressure on me this year than last year?

Q. Yes, and if that might help you.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Last year I came in winning the World Tour Finals, beating maybe the two best players of all time in the semifinals and finals.

I was also kind of the only young guy still. Now you have Tsitsipas, now you have Medvedev, you have Shapovalov. Dominic is playing well but he's not NextGen anymore, something like that.

I just think there's more young guys that are playing better. The attention is going towards them, as well, a little bit. It's a nice feeling for me, but I'm through to the third round, I'm happy about that. We'll see how the tournament goes.

I'm going round by round. The matches aren't going to get easier. Then we'll see.

Q. Since making your generous pledge the other night, how has the reaction been on social media and from people?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Good, obviously. But the $10,000 in Australian dollars is very, very nice, but my main goal is still hopefully the big one. I'm still far away from that. But we'll see how it goes.

I'm going to try my best, do everything I can for this country. Yeah, we'll see.

Q. How did you feel about your performance today?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: It was nice. I feel like it was better than the first round. I feel like there's some improvement still needed. But generally speaking, hopefully with every day it's going to get better and better. We'll see how the next match goes.

Obviously, as I said, the matches are not going to get easier. The opponents are going to get tougher. There's better tennis that I need to play.

Q. Do you feel the pressure has shifted from you because people are looking more at the other guys? Does that help you in any way?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: That's the same question as the first one, isn't it? I answered that.

Q. A general question in terms of your career. What would you say the best one or two decisions are that you have made in your career?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Decision regarding coaching? Regarding on-court decision? What exactly?

Q. The decision that really helped you in your amazing career, to break out, to sustain.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think I had great people around me from an early age. I think that helped me a lot. Having a brother, my parents, hiring Jez at an early age when I was 16, trusting him with the process was very important.

When we started working together, the first off-season that we did, I didn't win a match until Miami. I was already counted as pretty good. So that was a decision that I understood. I knew that I needed physical work. I knew that I needed to build up muscle from the skinny guy that I was to somewhat an athlete that I am now.

That process, everybody understood. My dad understood. I understood. That was probably a very big decision.

Who else? I mean, hiring Hugo, investing in my body. Back then, I didn't have the huge amount of money, but I knew if I wanted to be the best, I needed to invest in myself and in my tennis, in kind of my body to get better. Hiring those two guys was probably at the young age the decisions that I'll never regret.

Q. Roger Federer was expected to be a slam winner since 2001 beating Sampras. Until 2003, never won it. Do you think we expect too much from the people when they are still too young, and we did the same mistake maybe with you, too? If you think that Felix Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov, Herbert, Berrettini, they all have lost in this tournament already?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think it's different than it was 20 years ago. I think with the social media, I think with the mobile phones that we have, the pressure the media puts on us, other people put on us, we are more aware of it than 20 years ago.

To read what's going on, to read the press, something like that, you had to buy a newspaper, go on the laptop and search for it.

Now you open up Instagram, there's 5 million people that have an opinion about you all of a sudden. I think that has changed in that regard.

It's maybe more difficult for us now. On the other hand, the guys with Novak, Rafa, and Roger, simply they're better than us because they're winning. Now Medvedev is coming through. I've won a few things. Tsitsipas has won a few things. Dominic obviously, as well.

Us guys, yes, you need to count them in as maybe contenders for big titles, contenders to do well in major tournaments.

But I think is it more difficult for us than 20 years ago? Yes, maybe, because of the social media, of the mobile phones, of the opinions that everybody can spread out on Internet.

Even though when people say they don't care, they still read it. In the back of their mind, they're aware of it. So I think that is a massive difference.

I'm trying to look at social media as less as possible during Grand Slams, during big tournaments. Yeah, no offense to you guys, I don't really read what you guys write. You can go ahead and write whatever you want about me. It's fine. I will not be offended.

Yes, trying to be away, trying to be in your bubble kind of.

Q. Do you think once one of you guys, the young guys, wins a major, kicks butt, do you think that will change the landscape, the picture?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think once one of us wins it, I think it's going to be easier for the others. I think so. We always look at each other, as well. When I kind of started winning Masters Series, all of a sudden the other guys came through. Khachanov won a Masters Series. Medvedev won a Masters Series. Dominic. Now Medvedev got to a US Open final, we'll see how the other young guys will do.

I think it started with Tsitsipas maybe, Tsitsipas getting to the semifinals here, was the first young guy. Then Medvedev got to the final. I've made two quarterfinals. I think we help each other. Even though maybe some of us don't want to admit it, because we have all kind of personal relationships that we have with each other, but once one of us wins it, it's going to be good for the others, as well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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