MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 5, 2021

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

A. ZVEREV/K. Nishikori

6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Kei just said that he couldn't handle your serve and backhand today. Can you talk about your serve and backhand? Especially serve. Because before this tournament, seems like you were kind of worried about your serve because of injury.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah. I mean, I said it before, I mean, I couldn't have practiced the serve really in the last probably month or so since Miami. So since Munich, since I lost the match in Munich was the first time that I really said, Okay, I'm going to practice it. Normally I can go back to my routines, and I think that helped me a lot.

I was very pleased with the all-around performance today. Yes, my serve was working out pretty well, I think my returns, my backhand was also working out pretty well. All around, it was a good match for me, because against someone like Kei, you need to win the match yourself because he's not going to give anything to you. I felt like I did that well today.

Q. If I could ask you a nonmatch question, please, when you were growing up and you were coming into the open ranks of the tour, when you look back, did you miss anything from your life when you were growing up because so much of your time and efforts had to be dedicated or were dedicated to your professional tennis or what would have been your professional tennis life?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, definitely. I think you miss out on the normal teenage life, a little bit of the parties, the going-out things. But I was always very determined. I knew what I wanted. I knew that I had to be disciplined and work extremely hard for the things that I wanted to achieve, because if you want to have both, you're not gonna be as successful.

So, yes, I need to let a lot of things out of my life, you know, from a young age, but I was happy to do that because now, at the end of the day, I'm doing what I love.

Q. I want to ask you, do you think this is clay tournament that suits the most your skills, your tennis skills?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think this and Rome probably, two clay court tournaments I feel the most well. I think the altitude helps obviously with my serve and all that, but yeah, I have had success here, have had maybe even more success in Rome. You can argue that because I won the tournament there, and then I made finals the following year.

Yeah, but I hope I can adjust my tennis to any kind of conditions, and especially to the Paris conditions because this is I think the clay court tournament where I still need to improve the most.