MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 22, 2025

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Sascha, well done.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Thanks.

THE MODERATOR: How pleased are you with your level today?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, good match. Good opening match for sure. Happy to kind of have improved a few things from Indian Wells where I didn't feel well on the court. I didn't feel like I played good.

Hopefully this is just the first of many matches for me here and I can continue playing well.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. As a member of the player council, can you talk about the drama of the last few days, the PTPA lawsuit. And if you had a wish for what you would want to come out of this, what would that be from the viewpoint of the player council?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: It's too early to say what I want to come out of it.

Look, I think there are some valuable points, for sure. But I think that players and tours should unite and not fight, you know?

I don't know what their main goal is. I don't know what they want to come out of it.

I think for the ATP Tour, which is a very healthy tour. The ATP Tour has resources. Maybe it's going to cost a lot of money, but the tour will not disappear.

I think it's very dangerous for the WTA Tour because they're more fragile. They don't have the resources that maybe the ATP Tour has to fight this.

At the end of the day, yeah, I think there are some valuable points.

Q. What are those valuable points?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I'm not going to go into specific. I think there are some things that the tours can do better. That's why I'm in the player council.

Again, I think the tours should more unite and kind of be together with the players and listen to the players, listen to the opinions of the players, which basically are the tour, right? The players are the tour, more or less, which kind of went their separate ways a little bit in a way.

That's why I'm in the player council and that's why I hope to do better with the ATP together. I mean, that's very important to state, I think.

Q. 87% first serves. Talk about the hangover after the Australian Open, the heartbreaking loss. You honestly said, I'm not good enough. After that you had some rough losses. Did the two weeks at Indian Wells refresh you in some way?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I mean, I think after Australian Open I have to say I did some mistakes because the Australian Open for me mentally was very difficult because I did feel like I could win the tournament. Losing in the final to an incredible Jannik... I mean Jannik outplayed me on all different levels. I have to be honest with myself also. It was mentally very difficult. I was very sad about losing another final.

I got home and I basically went to practice straight away the next day. I didn't give myself enough time to process what happened. I didn't give my mind time to kind of just really chill out and do me first, right, kind of take care of myself first. I didn't do that at all. I went to the practice court straight away. I went to South America straight away.

I think the results of the last few weeks have been a result of maybe bad decision making by me, by my side, yeah.

In a way, I was also a bit lucky that I lost first round in Indian Wells. Of course, I didn't want to lose at all. You never want to lose. But it gave me two weeks' time. It gave me two weeks' time to breathe a little bit. It gave me two weeks' time to work on things, as well, because I was really not playing well.

There are certain things in my game that I could always rely on. I couldn't even rely on them in Indian Wells. I had time to work on my game. I had time to work on my mind a little bit, as well, hopefully start off fresh and do well here.

Q. Where did you work on it?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Where was I? I was in Indian Wells. We stayed at a beautiful resort there until Thursday or Friday, I'm not sure anymore, the second week, then we came here.

I stayed there. I was not on-site. I did everything in private and was away from tennis world a little bit.

Q. What you're saying there, do you feel that those structures that should be working between the players and the tour, having conversations, player council, so on, are they not working as well as they should and that's why we're having lawsuits? What do you think has gone on here?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I don't know why we are having this lawsuit. I don't know the reasoning behind it. I do know the reasoning, but they're individuals who started this lawsuit, right? So you have to ask them the question.

I think the tour, the ATP, came into the world as an association for players, right? It was kind of to protect the players to the maximum extent, whereas now of course tennis is a business. Like any other sport, it's a business, right? There's a player side, there's the tournament side, and there's people in the middle who are the presidents and whatever.

A lot of the times now, there are issues that we've talked about. Scheduling is one of them. Extended tournaments are another. Profit sharing. To be honest, I think the tours are doing an okay job with that. I think it's more the Grand Slams that we have to look at in that regard.

But I think in the last 15 to 20 years, the tour has become, the ATP has become more of a business structure where they look at, okay, the tournaments are maybe more important than the players.

I'm not sure that's right. The players' health should still come first. Longevity of a career should still come first.

There are things that, yeah, you can still improve, you can still work on. That's why I am in the player council. I really believe that we together with the ATP and together with the people that are on top who can actually decide of what direction the tour goes in, we can improve.

We talk about it for a very, very long time. It's a slow process, no question about it. I think some things can be a bit quicker. But I still believe that we should work on those things with the ATP together.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Thanks.