“Jannik had the best season. Carlos remains the second best player, even if I surpass him in the rankings. He won Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, two incredible titles. They are the two best players in the world at the moment.”
ATP Paris: Alexander Zverev makes short work of Humbert wins the last Masters 1000 of the season
It is to shake up the Italian and the Spaniard in the coming months that Sascha has decided to sometimes require additional training after his matches: “It’s about improving certain aspects of my game. When I play against Jannik and Carlos, I see that they do certain things better than me and I want to improve. This is why I train a lot, to be better next year. With my team, we are focusing on the next season. That’s the only goal for now, to improve where I’m not so good.”
At 27, the Hamburg native still dreams of a first Grand Slam title. And to achieve this, he knows he will have to remove Sinner and Alcaraz: “They are so aggressive in their game. I think tennis is going in that direction. When they have an easy ball and are in position to attack, they finish the point at 90%. That’s what I’m trying to improve in my game. Anyway, if you don’t move forward, you end up going backwards. Jannik has progressed enormously this year. Novak Djokovic has continued to improve over the last 15 or 20 years.”
Halted in his progress two years ago by a serious ankle injury on the clay at Roland Garros, Zverev was satisfied with an ATP 1000 title. But he dreams bigger: “I want to achieve bigger goals. In 2021, we shared the headlines with Novak and Daniil Medvedev. There was a shift taking place. In 2022, I was not far from becoming world number 1. And then there was the injury and a two-year process to come back. I’m glad to be in the right place again because I had no guarantee of getting there. But I want to go even higher.”
Carlos Rodriguez evokes the WTA Masters.
