Alexander Zverev after comeback: "Knows that there is still a long way to go"
Alexander Zverev returned to the big tennis stage at the Diriyah Tennis Cup in Saudi Arabia. Although the German draws a positive conclusion, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Dec 11, 2022, 07:34 pm
A win, a defeat in singles and a defeat in pairs, that's Alexander Zverev's balance sheet after his first "tournament" since the French Open, where the German sustained the serious foot injury in an epic semi-final duel with Rafael Nadal. Now the German is back and showed up at his first appearance - at the controversial exhibition event in Saudi Arabia - with some new facets in the game (such as the use of serve-and-volley) and the usual strong serve performance.
Without a doubt, the most important thing was to be active again in a competitive match, Zverev emphasized after his performances. "I'm glad I played two matches yesterday. I was glad that I could compete at this level and play with Daniil. Of course, the first set wasn't great, but that was to be expected. But then I was happy with that level and also with how I moved in the second set," said the native of Hamburg.
Zverev not arrived yet
In particular, it was the second sentence in the duel with the Russian that made the German look optimistically to the upcoming tasks: "It shows that I'm on the right track. But I know that there's still a long way to go lies," said Zverev, who after the individual success over friend Dominic Thiem - in the short format of two champions tiebreaks - also started in pairs alongside the Austrian.
The double was lost, but the experience was a great one, as Zverev explained: "It's always fun to be on the pitch. It's different than playing on a singles pitch. We've played a lot of singles games since it's nice to share the place in doubles for a change," said the German. Like Dominic Thiem, he is now going to Dubai, where the next exhibition event is on the agenda. And where Zverev would like to have covered another part of the way.