AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 27, 2024

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/A. Zverev

5-7, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. I know it's obviously a very harsh result to take, but you were potentially two points from making a Grand Slam final again here. Can you tell us how that felt in the match?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, just basically the whole Australian trip I was playing quite well. Been playing well actually for a few months now, so it's obviously extremely disappointing.

Yeah, nothing much I can say.

Q. It seemed that one or two things started to go on a little bit with Daniil towards the end of the match when he asked for a replay of a call and interrupted the flow of the play. Did that sort of stuff start to bother you?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: From what I remember, it was 6-5 in the fourth set, and I think I held that game quite easily, so, no. In that case, no. It didn't bother me much. I mean, I held quite easily afterwards.

But yeah, it is what it is. For me it's more disappointing that at 5-4 in the tiebreak I didn't serve it out, and I actually lost both points, you know, and actually the 5-All point was just purely unlucky, to be honest. That is more disappointing to me.

Q. Where did you feel like the match started to change? You were quite dominant at one stage in the second set. When did you start to feel it switch around?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: End of the second set I started to lose energy. I started to not feel, you know, so fresh anymore.

I mean, I am a bit sick. I got a bit sick after the Alcaraz match with a bit of fever and stuff like that, so that obviously didn't help the recovery, and I did play quite a lot.

So, yeah, just loss of energy a little bit in the end of the second set, and against him, it's impossible to play when you're not 100% physically, because he's literally someone that really doesn't give you anything.

He makes you work for every single point, and once you kind of can't really do that anymore, it becomes very difficult. Obviously I was very close in third and fourth set, but I wasn't, you know, the same player as I was the first two sets anymore. I was kind of just hanging on.

I was not losing my serve but I felt like in the first two sets I was really on top of his serve a lot, but that kind of went away in the third set.

Q. Has it been more difficult for you to concentrate here considering the news that came out of Germany right at the start of the tournament?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No, because I have said it before: Anyone who has a semi-decent IQ level understands what's going on. I hope that most of you guys do. I'm fine with it.

Q. The only other time you lost from two sets up was in the US Open finals. Does that make it doubly difficult to lose a match like this?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, frustrating. But for me it's more frustrating that I didn't feel 100% physically. That was more frustrating to me. It kind of took the chance away. I was playing well enough, you know, I was playing well enough throughout the whole Australian trip, in a way. I was playing very, very good tennis the whole Australian trip.

You know, kind of I lost it because of a physical state, not because of tennis. That is, for me, disappointing. That's probably the first time or one of the first times in my career that that has happened.

But the other thing is I can be also proud of myself because I did everything I could. I did all the work in the offseason, did all the work here in Australia. I was focused, I was concentrated, but things happened out of my control, in a way. It's not my last chance hopefully.