ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

November 3, 2024

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

A. ZVEREV/U. Humbert

6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Sascha, well done. How satisfied were you of your level today? What do you look forward to for the next couple of weeks and the Turin ATP Finals?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, look, I won a Masters. I'm obviously very happy about that. And especially I think today in the final, I played a pretty good match. I think solid from the start till the end.

Yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to one last tournament, Turin, this year. Yeah, hopefully I can finish the season strong.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Congratulations. Please don't tell us you were at practice now.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I was.

Q. You were now?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I just finished.

Q. Amazing. As you set out some ambitious goals for next year, are there any benchmarks that you foresee...

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Result-wise?

Q. Result-wise or...

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Result-wise, no. For me, I think, you know, I have goals, for sure. I think the goals are quite obvious for everyone.

For me right now it's about improving my game. And the results, I will let the results come to me. You know, I cannot force the results. You know, I didn't come here this week thinking about, oh, I for sure want to win this tournament. No, I want to improve, I want to get better, and I want to improve my game. That's what I'm doing, and that's what I'm trying to do every day.

Q. Sascha, did you get any sense at the very beginning that this was going to be a relatively comfortable day? No match is obviously easy, but it's certainly more comfortable than the previous two matches you played against him.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, no, I didn't have a feeling it was going to be 2 and 2. But actually from the start and from the rallies in the first games, even when I lost the rallies, I felt like the ball was quite well on my racquet.

When I have this feeling, I feel well on the court. I feel comfortable and confident, maybe being a bit more aggressive, going for more shots than I usually do. And against him, it was important. You know, I think he's one of the best players when he's aggressive.

I think he's maybe struggling a bit still when he has to defend. So when I put him in a position where he has to defend, I think that's a position where I'm comfortable and he's not.

So, yeah, I felt great off the back of the court, and I think against him that was the key today.

Q. Congratulations, Sascha. Sometimes it's tough to play against a lefty, left-handed players. I don't know if you like it or not, but it was your 26th consecutive victory against a lefty. Did you know that? Do you know the last time that you lost against a left-handed player it was almost two years ago, just at the beginning when you came back on the tour?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think Davis Cup, right? Against Switzerland? Yeah, and then I was still coming back. So I could have lost to anyone.

Yeah, I knew that. So for sure, I mean, lefties, for me, are maybe more natural than for others because I obviously grew up with my brother who is a lefty, so this is all I kind of practiced with when I was young.

So for me, obviously maybe the topspins, the slice serves and everything like that, I'm maybe more used to it. But still, lefties can be tricky, but everybody else can, as well.

Q. Just coming back to your practice session after such a final, did you work on a specific thing a few minutes ago?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah.

Q. Would you say what? When is your next practice session?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Wednesday. But, yeah, for me, the result, it's great. I'm extremely satisfied. I'm happy about it. But as I said in the beginning of the week, for me I want to improve some things for me to achieve my really big goals.

I'm happy with the final. I'm happy with the tournament. Of course I'm sitting here with the trophy from a Masters 1000 event, but there are still some things I want to improve, and this is a process of a few months, and I'm improving for next year already hopefully.

Q. You won two times the Finals, so it's a tournament that you like. Which will be most important in Turin? The physical condition, the mental condition? Because the season is very long, is very demanding. So it's important to find the balance between the body and mind?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think for Turin, everybody becomes motivated. It's such a special tournament. It's such a special atmosphere and feeling when you're there and only eight players in the world are there.

So you feel special already playing there, so I think everybody is motivated. Everybody wants to win this title and play good tennis. So I think that's not the case.

I think the later tournaments in the season, which are normal tournaments, there maybe some players are a bit more tired, maybe lacking motivation a bit, but I think in Turin, once you made that tournament, I mean, you're fighting all year to make the cut there, right?

So I think once you're there, you're going to give it your best, and everybody else will, as well. At the end of the day, you're only playing the best eight players in the world. So there is no easy matches, and you have to play your best tennis from the first match on.

Q. Congratulations. You played a lot of matches this year. I think it was your 66th victory today. Are you going to be a bit more selective in the tournaments you play next year? You said you really wanted to win a first Grand Slam. In order to achieve that, do you have to play less matches and to focus really on the big tournaments?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Do I? I don't know. I think every player is different. Every player has his own way.

For me, I mean, I played all the Masters events, which I will play next year, as well, for sure. I think they are the biggest tournaments that the ATP has. I will hopefully play all the Grand Slams.

Then, you know, there is not that many tournaments that I played, actually. There is only very selective tournaments that I played. Of course with the Olympics this year, two tournaments came along which were more, Hamburg and Olympics.

But apart from that, I didn't play that extremely much. After the Australian Open, I took a month off. I only played two tournaments in Mexico before the Masters events.

Then on clay, I played only Munich outside of Masters events. It's not like I'm playing every single week and I'm chasing points.

On grass I played one tournament before Wimbledon. After the US Open, I played only Shanghai, Vienna, and here. It's not like I'm playing every single week. I have won a lot of matches, which is beneficial. Everybody wants to win a lot of matches, but I wouldn't say I played a lot of tournaments this year.

Q. What's bigger for you: Winning a major or getting to No. 1 for the first time?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: That's a very good question. I honestly believe that in tennis these days it comes hand in hand. I think it's very difficult to be World No. 1 without winning a slam.

I had the chance in 2022 if I would have not gotten injured, so that's rare, because there it was still special occasions. There, obviously Novak didn't play a lot of events because he wasn't vaccinated. Rafa started the year very strong and got a bit hurt. Medvedev got hurt, as well. He had back surgery that year.

It was a weird year. It was not like everybody was playing all the tournaments and they were in full strength all the tournaments. So it was different.

But I think now when everybody is playing and everybody is playing at full strength and everybody is healthy, you have to win Grand Slams to become World No. 1. I'm World No. 2 now, but I'm 3,000 points away from Jannik, more or less, maybe more even.

I think without the Grand Slams and without the points of the Grand Slams, it's not possible anymore.