Zverev reveals cause of poor form: “I played Australian Open final and started practising less”
Alexander Zverev, now 4-4 since the 2025 Australian Open, attributes his slump to lack of practice
© Tristan Lapierre / Tennis Majors
Since losing the 2025 Australian Open final to Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev has played eight matches and lost half of them. The German most recently faced a defeat at the hands of Tallon Griekspoor in his Indian Wells Masters opener on Friday.
Playing as the top seed, Zverev started against Griekspoor positively by taking the first set but the Dutchman hung tough and took the following two sets to prevail 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) after three hours, 10 minutes.
The result meant Zverev became the first No 1 seed to lose his opening match at the Indian Wells Open after winning the in the first set.
Following the devastating result, the world No 2 accepted he’s far from the level he played at during the Melbourne Major in January.
“I can sit here and have excuses, but at the end of the day I’m just not playing good tennis at the moment,” he told the press. “It’s as simple as that. I’m not playing a level that I want to play, definitely not playing anywhere near what I played in Australia. This is the end result of, I don’t know, maybe Australian Open. But I’m just disappointed with my game.”
The 27-year-old then attributed his poor form to lack of practice:
“I think I’m serving quite badly the last few weeks. My second serve is fine, but my first serve is terrible. From the back of the court I’m not playing great. It’s everything. You can’t really name one thing. It’s just practice. I practice a lot. You know, I played the Australian Open final, and I started practising less. I keep working, but right now it’s not clicking. I have to find a way to make that happen.”
possibility of becoming world No 1 not affecting Zverev
With Jannik Sinner, the world No 1, serving a doping ban until May 4 this year, Zverev, sitting second in the ATP singles rankings, has been touted to replace the Italian atop but the possibility has been fading fast given how poorly the German has performed in the recent weeks.
Upon being asked if the prospect ever played on his mind, Zverev suggested he’s now obliged to focus more on improving his game to have any shot at dethroning the current world No 1.
“It was in the beginning. Now it’s less, because I’m just playing terrible. So for me, I have to find my game before thinking about that, because to become world No 1, you have to win tournaments. I’m not past getting first, second round at the moment. So I need to figure that out first.”
At present, Sinner reigns supreme with 11,330 ranking points in the ATP tally, 3,195 more than Zverev.
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