Avec Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz et Daniil Medvedev en moins, Alexander Zverev était devenu le grandissime favori du Rolex Paris Masters. Et l'Allemand tient la pression pour le moment. En demies, il n'a pas tremblé ce samedi contre le vainqueur de l'édition 2022 Holger Rune et s'est imposé en deux sets et 1h47 de jeu, 6-3, 7-6(4). Rassurant ces dernières semaines après un coup de mou en milieu de saison, Zverev va chiper la place de n°2 mondial à Carlos Alcaraz lundi. Une belle récompense de sa saison. Finaliste malheureux en 2020, l'Allemand s'offre une deuxième chance de décrocher son premier titre au Rolex Paris Masters, le septième en Masters 1000.
Photo : @TennisActu
Photo : @TennisActu
Category
🥇
SportTranscription
00:00Hi Alexander, congratulations for your win. Just a curiosity, after the match you go always
00:09to practice. Why? You are not enough tired that the match are light?
00:14No, it's not about that. I answered that yesterday. For me it's about improving a few things.
00:23I feel like Yannick and Carlos, they are doing a few things better than me at the moment.
00:30I want to improve. I want to improve not for tomorrow, not for today or because of the
00:37matches I played here. I want to generally improve for next year as well. That's the
00:44reason I do take this as a lot of practice here this weekend. I want to improve my game
00:52for next year as well.
00:54Sascha, when you say Yannick and Carlos are doing things better than you, what are you
01:04most concerned about? Which aspects do you feel you've really got to hone in on?
01:11Concerned? I don't know. I feel like they are so aggressive. I think tennis is going
01:18towards that direction. I think when they get an easy ball, when they are in an attacking
01:26position, 90% of the time the point is over, whether it's a winner or an unforced error.
01:31That's how hard they hit the ball. That's how aggressive they are. I think in that aspect
01:37I can improve. That's what I'm trying to do.
01:40Sascha, you're not bound to meet any of them anytime soon on the tour. Are you a little
01:46concerned that perhaps you're putting too much pressure on yourself with this very intense
01:51practice schedule?
01:53No.
01:54No?
01:55No. I think in tennis you always have to improve. If you're standing still you're going to
02:01go backwards because the other players are also improving. Yannick has improved a lot
02:05this year. There are some things that Carlos has improved as well. I think Novak over the
02:10past 15, 20 years has improved every single year. If you ask him whether he's a better
02:17tennis player last year, let's say 2023, or 2022 even, or 10 years ago when he was younger,
02:28I think he would say that he's a better tennis player now. I think that's because everybody
02:35tries to improve. If you're not improving you're standing still. I want to achieve my
02:42biggest goal still. For that I know I have to get better because for now it has not been
02:48good enough.
02:49Hi Sascha. The match is not over but in case Hugo Ember wins the game, can you say a few
02:55words about him, the player he is? What would it be for you to play him again after the
03:01great match you played last year together?
03:04He's an aggressive player. He's somebody who goes for his shots for sure. But as you said,
03:10the match is not over yet. For me, Karen has been playing great tennis the last few weeks
03:14so we have to first see who's going to be the winner of that match.
03:19You're going to be number two in the world next week. Does it have a special meaning?
03:25It's nice for sure. It's nice to be back at the highest position that I've been so far.
03:32Of course I want to get higher but for me still Yannick has the best year this season
03:39for sure. And then Carlos had the second best year. He won two Grand Slams. I know that
03:44I'm ahead of him in the rankings maybe but for me he won Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
03:51Those are two massive titles so they're still the two best players in the world in my opinion
03:56at the moment.
03:58I guess it's hard to compare but how would you assess your level now compared to the
04:04player you were just before your major injury two years ago? Is it the best version of Sacha
04:09Zverev today? And are you surprised to have been back so fast at the top?
04:15I mean I hope so. I hope it's the best version. And that period, I feel like in 2021 there
04:22was maybe a little bit of a change coming up. A little bit. Because the big titles,
04:29especially at the end of the year in 2021, were kind of shared between Novak, Daniel
04:34and myself. Novak won Wimbledon, Daniel won the US Open, I won the Olympics and the World
04:39Tour Final. So there was a period where it kind of was moving towards the direction of
04:43maybe a little bit of a change. And then in 2022 I feel like I was going a very good direction
04:50at Roland Garros. I was going hopefully to achieve my dream of winning Roland Garros.
04:57I was number two in the world. I was very close to becoming world number one as well.
05:01So it was kind of going in that direction. And then obviously there was a two year stop
05:06to that process. There was two years where I was not competitive for Grand Slams, not
05:12competitive for world number one and those kind of things. So I'm happy to be back where
05:17I am for sure. Because there was never a guarantee that I would be back at this level. So for
05:23sure for me it's a great satisfaction to be back. But again, I want to improve and I want
05:28to go even higher.
05:31There's a lot of talk to you about improving and adding to your game. If you had to look
05:39at it percentage wise, how much more percentage wise do you think you can improve? And as
05:47part of that, do you still set goals for yourself on, let's say on an annual basis?
05:57For me, my biggest goal right now is to improve the things that I think I'm worse than the
06:02other guys at. That is my goal until the Australian Open. That's why, yes, I'm in the final here.
06:07I'm extremely happy about that. I'm extremely happy with how I'm playing as well. But again,
06:15this is not my main focus right now. Of course, I'm in the Masters 1000 final. It's a huge
06:21thing for me. It's big. It's big for any player. It's a privilege to be in these kind of situations.
06:26But me and my team, me and my coaching staff and me and my physical trainer, we have set
06:31a goal that we want to improve on things until, you know, for next season. This is our main
06:39focus. This is our vision that we want to do. That for me is the only goal that I have
06:45at the moment.