DPA
Berlin
Alexander Zverev wasn’t bothered by the criticism he received from tennis great Roger Federer, who said the German’s game is too passive.
“This is nothing that I don’t know. It’s quite clear to me that I didn’t play the way I want to play. That was a terrible game from me.
That’s why what Roger said is completely okay,” Zverev said about Federer’s comment on his US Open performance in the quarter-finals match against American Taylor Fritz.
During an event in Berlin on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Laver Cup, Federer said about Zverev: “Against the best players in the world you have to take the initiative and play offensively. He didn’t do that against Fritz.
“When I watch him play, I see someone how plays far too passively, far too defensively in the decisive moments.” Zverev won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020 but he’s still waiting for his first Grand Slam title. He reached the finals of the US Open in 2020 and the French Open this year, but was defeated in both games.
Zverev justified his result at this year’s US Open the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, with an exhausting schedule amid the Olympic season.
“It was perhaps too much at some point. Not just for me. The US Open was not a tournament with results that were normal. With Carlos (Alcaraz), with Novak (Djokovic), with me somewhere too. There were a lot of defeats that weren’t normal,” he said.
Alcaraz was eliminated in the second round, while record Grand Slam winner Djokovic was defeated in the third round.
Laver Cup more than a show tournament German tennis player Alexander Zverev said that the Laver Cup, which starts on Friday in Berlin, is more than a show event.
“Everyone here is motivated to win. If it wasn’t a serious tournament, we wouldn’t practice two, three hours per day and prepare ourselves the way we did,” he said.
“The best players in the world are all there and on the same team. You don’t want to let them down.
“Normally you sit in the locker room and want to beat every opponent and suddenly they are your team-mates. That’s pretty special. It’s the only tournament in the world where you have five top ten players as your team-mates,” he added.
The world number two will player for Team Europe alongside Alcaraz, Grigor Dimitrov, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud and Stefano Tsistsipas.
The format of the event, co-initiated by Federer, is similar to golf’s Ryder Cup, with Team Europe facing Team World, which this year includes Americans Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, among others.
