Two-time champion Alexander Zverev has kicked off his ATP Final campaign in style! He defeated Andrey Rublev in straight sets in his first group-stage match, taking just 72 minutes to wrap up the contest against the Russian. Zverev has been in red-hot form this season, playing well on almost all surfaces. Shortly after clinching this emphatic victory in Turin, the German shared a few words on the ‘unusual’ indoor hard court surface at the 2024 ATP Finals. Alexander Zverev said that he misses the variations in surfaces, these days. He believes this wasn’t the case when Roger Federer was still on Tour!

During his post-match interview, Zverev discussed how, in recent years, the surfaces have become increasingly similar. “The surface is very slow. It’s too slow for an indoor hard court. I’m not complaining because I like slow surfaces, I like fast surfaces. I don’t really care too much,” he said. Alexander Zverev has entered this tournament after winning the title at the Paris Masters. Over there the surface is considered to be one of the fastest. 

Speaking more on missing the significant differences between surfaces he added, “I think in tennis right now, we’re missing game styles a little bit. The reason why is because I think clay courts and hard courts, they’re all pretty much the same. They’re almost the same speed, with the exception of two tournaments this year, with the exception of Cincinnati and of Paris Bercy, because they’re faster. I’m missing a little bit the differences in surfaces because before there was a clear difference between a clay court and outdoor hard courts. Some were very slow like in Indian Wells, but some were very fast, like Canada was always very fast, Shanghai was always very fast. And indoor hard courts. I think we lost that a little bit by trying to make all the surfaces very similar and almost the same.”

Later on, the current world number two, even brought in the Swiss Maestro into the discussion. He said, “I think when Roger was still on tour, it was very different. There was big, big differences between a clay court, a hard court, and indoor hard court. I’m missing that right now a little bit.” If we take a closer look at Alexander Zverev’s success this season, his first title triumph came on clay (Italian Open) and the next one came on the fast hard courts in Paris. On grass? Well, on grass his best performance was reaching the SF at the Halle Open.

Since Zverev drew Roger Federer into the discussion, do you know which surface brought the Swiss Maestro the most success in his career? Well, although he grew up playing on the clay courts, still grass was his favorite surface. He won most of his big titles on the grass courts. Federer won eight Wimbledon titles in his career! His game was more suited to fast playing surfaces. However, during an interview in 2013, Roger Federer claimed that he thinks there are no necessary grass-court players, indoor specialists, or clay-court specialists. He said he believes everybody can play everywhere nowadays.

So, according to him, it’s perhaps the players’ adaptability that has brought more competition to the game, more than anything else. Despite having this adaptability these days, players still have a preference for playing on a particular surface than any other surface. Which surface according to Alexander Zverev is the most dangerous surface in tennis?

Alexander Zverev reveals “the most dangerous surface” in the racquet sport

We saw Alexander Zverev slip and hurt his knee during his third-round match against Cameron Norrie at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. Although he won that match against Norrie, he was defeated in the next by Taylor Fritz. Later on, we heard Zverev claim that he literally played on “one leg” in his fourth-round match against the American. Then during an interview with SpilXperten, we saw Alexander Zverev claim that grass was the most dangerous surface.

He said, “Grass is definitely the most dangerous surface. These things can happen in any match on grass, and it happened to me against Norrie. You slip, and your body gets into a weird position, which normally doesn’t happen on clay.” Zverev claims that players usually have better control while sliding on clay than on the grass. Seeing the number of players withdrawing during Wimbledon this year, he feels this is surely one of the most dangerous surfaces in the tennis world.

Not only surfaces, Zverev has been very much vocal about the tennis balls as well in the last few months. Recently, after finishing off his match against Rublev, he spoke a bit about how situations have become very different with the balls as well. He raised a concern saying, “It’s just that I believe, in the long run, players’ health is a significant issue with the current balls. They are somewhat like a shuttlecock; they fly very fast the first two or three meters and then lose speed. There’s nothing to keep the ball alive, something that was very different 5 or 6 years ago.“ Share your thoughts on Alexander Zverev’s take on the differences in surfaces and balls nowadays.