Alexander Zverev Reveals the Challenges of Winning Grand Slams Over Masters Titles

World No.7 Alexander Zverev reached the semifinals of US Open 2020 after a gritty win against Borna Coric. With this, Zverev has made his second Grand Slam semifinal, having reached the Australian Open semifinal earlier this year. 

Zverev had a rough start against Borna Coric. Losing a horrible first set, he got himself together and forged a comeback. He dominated the rest of the match and won it in four sets.

In his post-match press conference, Zverev was asked about the jump from winning Masters 1000 events to winning the Grand Slams. Zverev had won his first Masters title in 2017, aged 20. But it took him a while to influence and reach the latter stages of Grand Slams.

“For me it was mental. I wanted it too much, I was trying too hard in Grand Slams, as well. I needed to learn with that, as well.” 

Alexander Zverev on the jump up from Masters 1000 to Grand Slams

Zverev explained what he had to learn to set up his game in the Grand Slams.

“As I said, the Grand Slams is a tournament that you play for. This is the reason why you started playing tennis. I needed to learn how to deal with that pressure. I needed to learn how to deal with those expectations of myself.

“Yeah, it took me a little bit of time, but, you know, now I’m in the semifinals of the US Open and I definitely don’t want to stop here.”

Alexander Zverev has made Germany proud as well. He became the first German to reach the US Open men’s singles semifinals since Boris Becker did it in 1995. The 5th seed will next play Pablo Carreno Busta in the semifinals.

Carreno Busta played a 4-hour marathon to surpass Denis Shapovalov in the quarterfinals. This year, Zverev has stepped up his game and has also added David Ferrer in his coaching team. Let’s see if Zverev will use this opportunity to become the new Grand Slam champion.

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