Alexander Zverev batted back at a reporter during his press conference after losing to Jannik Sinner at the ATP Finals. The young Italian was in control throughout the match as he cruised to a 6-4 6-3 triumph in his second outing at this year’s tournament. The result saw Sinner book his place in the semi-finals of the competition and maintain his hopes of reaching the summit in the year-end ATP rankings.
It was also Zverev’s third successive defeat at the hands of Sinner, having lost to the 24-year-old in Paris and Vienna. In his press conference after the match, a reporter brought up Ivan Ljubicic’s take, where he suggested that if Sinner is regularly improving, others should ask themselves what they were lacking. Zverev, however, did not appear to be impressed by that line of questioning.
“Number one is to stay healthy and injury-free,” replied the German. “This year was a nightmare for me injury-wise. All the time I had something. It was difficult for me to improve when I always had to try to get healthy. This is the number one thing.
“Look, of course I think it’s quite easy for you guys to ask these questions because the score says 6-4, 6-3. If you look deeper into the match, I really believe that it could have been more than 6-4, 6-3. Don’t always judge it by the score.”
Quizzed on where the match was won and lost, Zverev said: “I think generally today the match, the biggest difference was how he was serving on the break points. I had more break points than him.
“I felt very good from the baseline, actually better than in Vienna almost, when we were in the rally. To be honest, he had two chances to break me and he used both of them. I had a lot of chances and I didn’t use any.
“The score was 6-4, 6-3, but in my opinion, my humble opinion, I felt like the match was closer than the score maybe says. I thought it was a very high-level match. I thought especially from the baseline we played very well.
“This is how it is sometimes. Sometimes when he’s having a day like this where he’s serving unbelievable. His biggest strength is of course how he plays from the baseline, how he moves, how he hits forehands, how he hits backhands.
“Sometimes when he’s serving like this, it’s even more difficult because, as you said, seven break points, seven first serves, not one second serve I had. I was not even in the rally at all. I think I made one return. He hit a forehand winner.
“So yeah, it’s difficult like this, but of course, he improved his serve a lot. All in all, from the baseline, how the game was, I thought it was a good match, which maybe was closer than the score says.”