AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 10, 2025

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Sascha, obviously it must be great to be back in Australia, first Grand Slam of the year. How are you feeling?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, happy that we're back. Happy to be playing Grand Slam tennis again. Yeah, feeling pretty good. Had a little bit of an issue at the United Cup, but feeling better now. Ready to get going.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What is your mindset going into the first Grand Slam of the year? Obviously you made the semis last year.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I mean, look, I think everybody knows what I'm chasing. Everybody knows what my goal and my dreams are, right? It's to win. No. 2 in the world, going into a Grand Slam as the world No. 2, you have to have the mindset of, I want to win the tournament. That's how my mindset is.

I definitely want to play my best tennis. I definitely want to, yeah, go as far and hopefully win the tournament.

Q. I'm sure you're aware the coaching on the court now is allowed. I was wondering, do you sometimes think about it during matches, like I need to ask something to my dad? Are you ever experienced a match overturned by coaching?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Overturned? No. At the beginning I was not a big fan of that rule. I always thought tennis is an individual sport where you kind of have to figure things out on your own in a way. That was always something that I believed in.

I mean, I thought coaching is allowed for the last year already. I don't know when they changed it, the year before, something like that. In my mind coaching has been allowed for multiple years now.

Of course, it's different now. They're sitting courtside. They have the iPad and they have the stats on the screen. That's a big difference I think.

But we'll see how it goes. I'm sure that there's going to be coaches who will coach more. I'm sure there's going to be more quiet coaches.

But yeah, I mean, I like it personally because it was always, like, Well, are we allowed to coach, are we not allowed to coach? It's very clear now. You're definitely allowed to coach, to use stats, use all the data that you get. If tennis is going towards that way, then it should go that way to 100%. That's what it did.

Q. At the United Cup there was a lot of talk about the handshake. We get these at the end of matches between players. What is that like at the end of a tough match either that you've won or lost, you have to go and shake the hand of someone who might have been tense with? What is that like as a player?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I didn't have a bad handshake at the United Cup.

Q. Not you.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Oh, I was like something I forgot already.

I mean, I think, to be honest, on the ATP Tour, especially after tough matches, if everything goes right in the matches, there's always like a handshake, kind of a hug almost, especially if you get along well with the person. There's never any things.

I've had one or two moments myself where the handshake maybe wasn't great. I think Hamburg against Arthur the handshake wasn't great from my side. I didn't like some of the things that, yeah, happened in the match. Everybody thought it was the underarm serve or something like that. It wasn't the underarm serve. It was more the checking of the marks, really doubting me as a sportsman, fairness. That was kind of a moment.

Also in the end I realized that it was kind of more my mistake that the handshake happened like that. I don't know what situation you're talking about. Are you talking about Collins and Swiatek maybe?

Q. Yeah.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Ask them. I don't know what the issue is between each other, to be honest (smiling). I mean, Danielle has done that before, no? Or not? I feel like there is a little bit of history there, so maybe that's part of the reason.

Q. Getting back to the coaching situation, where they have it on the court now, a lot of people will have coaches on the court. You'll have your dad and your brother sitting right next to you, as well. Is that in some ways, I don't know, a little bit too much?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: For me, they're my coaches, right? That's how I see them on the tennis court. I've talked about my relationship with my father quite a lot. I think why it's working extremely well, why it's such a healthy relationship, is because we can differentiate and he can differentiate private life to tennis.

When we are at tournaments, he's my coach, and that's it. He's not somebody that really overlooks my day-to-day life. He's not somebody that wants to know where I go to dinner, what time I went to bed, what time I woke up. That's not how it is between me and my father.

I think that's why the relationship is working so well. That's why maybe some father-kid's relationships who are also involved in the tennis coaching are not working so well. They want to oversee everything. They want to be involved in everything. That just doesn't work.

At some point everybody becomes an adult, and everybody becomes their own person. My father has been really smart at realizing that. He's been extremely good at that.

Where other cases, I feel like that has not been the case. That's why there have been some split-ups between parents and kids and all that.

Q. Do you like it on the court?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: In my opinion, I've always said it, I think tennis is a sport where you have to figure out things on your own. But if they allow coaching, this is the right way. This half-hearted stuff that we had over the last few years is not good.

Either you go 100% towards coaching is allowed, you're allowed to use data, you're allowed to use everything that makes it possible for you to win, or you don't do it at all.

This half-hearted stuff, somebody is allowed to scream something when you're on this side, but you're allowed to have a conversation, it's not right.

I think you go full on, coaching is allowed, or you say, no, tennis is an individual sport and coaching is not allowed. I think this is a much better way than it was last year.

Q. Saying you want to win here, who do you say is your biggest rival?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think the usual names. Jannik, Alcaraz, Novak for sure is part of that list. Daniil, because he's done it before. Those guys. I think the usual.

Alex de Minaur, for Australians, I think it's always very exciting in Australia. But yeah, I think the biggest favorites are still Jannik is very far up that list. He's still No. 1 by a big margin I think on the favorite list. Then Carlos and Novak, obviously I see them as well very high up the list.

Q. (Off mic.)

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I played with Novak yesterday, but obviously it was an exhibition. It was for a good cause. Once the tournament starts, I think you pay more attention.

For most of those guys, it's the first tournament of the year.

Q. Two-and-a-half years ago you suffered that serious injury against Nadal. How proud are you of your progression from that injury? Did you ever expect to be back in this position?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, I think I've answered this question a lot. I'm going to give you the boring answer that I've always said.

I didn't know if I was ever going to be back at this level. I was very uncertain of it. I was very unsure, especially two years ago when I was sitting here. I won my first-round match in five sets. I lost to Michael Mmoh. I was very uncertain I was ever going to be competing for these titles again, let alone be top 10 or top 5 in the world again.

In a way, I am proud of what we've achieved with my team and what we've accomplished on the comeback, yes. Again, I still have dreams and goals. I want to achieve them.

Q. You said you had a need to always improve. How did it work out for you in the off-season? Did you maintain that additional practice schedule? Is that the intention for this year?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, we will find out I guess starting on Sunday for me if I've improved or not (smiling). For sure there are some things we wanted to work on and we definitely put extra time on those things.

In the off-season, I don't call it extra work because the off-season is exactly for that. I think you have to go to your limit physically, you have to go to your limit on how much you play tennis. Everything has to be almost above the limit, that playing a Grand Slam and playing five sets almost becomes easy for you physically.

Yeah, I definitely feel like I did that this off-season.

Q. A quick follow-up on what you were saying about your father and the boundaries. Is that something you ever discussed with him, where you had to say, This is where I draw a line?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No, my father's an extremely smart person. I'm very thankful for that. He's been a tennis player himself. He's not as well-known as maybe me or my brother, but he was a very good tennis player himself back in the Soviet Union. He understands how tennis works. He understands for a great tennis player you need great coaching, but you need kind of freedom as well in what you do.

I've seen a lot of parents-players relationships that kind of went downhill very quickly when players became adults. I'm very thankful that that is not the case with us, that we are still going strong.

Sometimes he's more towards I actually don't want to go to tournaments anymore, and I don't want to kind of go to every single session anymore when I ask him to do that.

Yeah, it's working out well. I said it before. I've had multiple other coaches. I still believe that he's the best coach I've ever had.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Can I have a question, please?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yes, you're going to win your 25th Grand Slam. We're all going to be happy. Yay, Novak Djokovic, once again.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: We know that you love the universe, planetary systems. Can you tell us what attracts you to the space exploration subject?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Trying to figure out the unknown (smiling). Is that a good answer? Trying to figure out the unknown. We believe that we know stuff, but actually we know very little. Learning with the process.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Do you think that the answer of winning a Grand Slam lies in space?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I think the answer of winning a Grand Slam is you letting me win one (laughter).

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Okay. Thank you very much.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Thank you.