Un an après sa terrible blessure contractée face à Rafael Nadal sur le Philippe-Chatrier, Alexander Zverev était de retour dans le dernier carré de Roland-Garros ! L'Allemand, déjà demi-finaliste à Roland-Garros en 2021 et 2022, jouait gros sur cette quinzaine. En cas de mauvais résultat Porte d'Auteuil, l'ancien numéro 2 mondial (en juin 2022) aurait pu sortir du top 100 ! Il n'en est rien, puisqu'il a conservé avec beaucoup d'autorité ce qui lui était le plus cher pour rester dans le top 30. Mais face à lui ce vendredi, Casper Ruud a livré l'une de ses meilleures prestations en carrière pour s'imposer 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 en 2h09. Impérial dans la diagonale coup droit, ce dernier a terrassé l'ancien n°2 mondial avec ses coups de fouets incontrôlables. Sascha Zverev a avoué avoir eu un problème physique lors de cette rencontre. S'il a pu profiter d'un tableau ouvert pour se hisser aux portes de la finale, l'Allemand tire tout de même un bilan positif de cette quinzaine parisienne .
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SportTranscription
00:00 It's often said that tennis is an individual sport,
00:04 but it's never more beautiful than when it's a team sport.
00:09 BNP Paribas, faithful to tomorrow's tennis for 50 years.
00:15 Yeah, for sure. Another semi-final here.
00:18 Very disappointed with today, because I think you can lose,
00:24 but the game just wasn't there at all.
00:29 So a big difference, unfortunately, to the previous matches.
00:33 But that's the way it is. He played well.
00:37 I played very, very much below average.
00:42 So that's how it goes.
00:44 Alex, over here. Two quick questions, if I could.
00:48 One is, were you 100% fit out there today?
00:51 I don't want to take anything away from him, to be honest.
01:00 But, yeah, I had my struggles.
01:03 The second one is, given the run you'd had into the match today,
01:09 how surprising was it to you that you weren't able to play at that level again?
01:13 It's a tough one, because I think he played extremely well.
01:24 I had one physical issue, which against him you have to run a lot,
01:32 you have to fight, like the previous match, actually.
01:37 It was very similar, but I wasn't really able to do that.
01:40 I wasn't really able to push off my serve much as well.
01:43 Everything went his way a little bit.
01:48 At the end of the day, that's how it goes.
01:52 If I break him maybe in the second set, then the match can turn around.
01:55 I don't use those kind of chances, then at some point it's going to get tough.
02:00 I would have loved to play a final here, for sure.
02:06 I saw it as a big opportunity to play a final here.
02:09 He was much, much better than me today, and that's the result that there is.
02:15 Hello, Sascha. I understand it was a very tough period for you,
02:20 coming back after injury, recovery,
02:22 but what was the most difficult thing during this period?
02:27 Is it the mental part or the physical?
02:29 I think once you start playing again, losing a lot more than maybe you're used to,
02:35 going out of turns earlier than you're used to,
02:37 that's not easy to come back.
02:39 Yes, you know that you were injured.
02:40 Yes, you know that there are reasons for that,
02:42 but still, you don't want to accept it in a way.
02:46 That was a bit difficult, but I hope now we can move on from that
02:50 and that can be over, because I felt like I played great tennis here until today.
02:56 It's definitely something that I can build on.
03:01 Hi, Sascha. You've obviously won a couple of matches against Novak Djokovic.
03:05 Do you think Kasper has what it takes to beat him in the final?
03:09 Kasper is in the Grand Slam final for a reason.
03:12 If you're in the Grand Slam final, you have chances,
03:16 because you're that good of a player.
03:18 Is Novak the favourite? Yes, of course.
03:22 There's no question about it. He knows how it's done, he knows how to do it.
03:25 But Kasper is playing great tennis,
03:30 and if I would have to bet money, maybe I wouldn't bet on Kasper too much.
03:35 But does he have chances? Yes, he does.
03:39 He's playing amazing tennis and I think he deserves to be in the final.
03:41 Alex, when you look at your overall tennis over the last two weeks in particular,
03:47 where do you feel like your game is at in terms of your recovery overall?
03:52 I think the last two weeks I played exactly how I played last year.
03:56 I think I was kind of back until today.
04:00 Again, it was difficult for me out there, there's no question about it.
04:06 But I think the first five matches were great matches.
04:09 Are you at the point where you go into these big championships
04:16 where you went into them a year ago thinking,
04:20 "Yeah, I'm ready to win this thing"?
04:23 A year ago I was, yeah.
04:25 If that's what you're asking.
04:27 You mean now?
04:29 Because you had the victory.
04:31 Yeah, I feel like now I'm able to.
04:34 Maybe not Wimbledon, because it's played on grass.
04:38 That's more difficult for me, but generally speaking, yeah.
04:42 That's the mindset I'll have from now on.
04:44 I'm from the Norwegian press.
04:51 Djokovic is chasing the 23rd victory in the Grand Slam.
04:55 Could there be any worse start for Kasper in the final?
05:00 I think it couldn't be better, to be honest.
05:03 Because Novak is one of the best players in the world, that's for sure.
05:08 But when you're on the brink of history,
05:10 I think that adds a little bit of extra pressure.
05:12 You remember the US Open final he had with Medvedev
05:15 after beating me in the semis.
05:18 So, you know, the pressure, we're all human.
05:21 Novak is human, we all feel it.
05:23 So I think for him, for Kasper, that's the best scenario, to be honest.
05:27 Sascha, you've enjoyed great support here again.
05:36 The Paris fans really love you.
05:38 It's been a great two weeks,
05:40 but what do you think is the biggest challenge for you
05:43 at this stage of your career?
05:46 And how determined and motivated are you
05:49 to try and take your tennis to the next level?
05:51 Very. I'm doing everything that I can for it.
05:54 It's very difficult to speak about it after today,
05:59 because today I got my ass kicked,
06:01 there's no question about it.
06:03 But I was also not playing the way I wanted to play.
06:06 But that is definitely my goal.
06:13 I'm happy that I'm back to where I was so soon after the injury.
06:17 Normally it takes longer.
06:19 I was in the semi-final of the Grand Slam, that's very positive.
06:23 I missed out on a chance, yes, but that's life.
06:27 We move on.