German tennis player Alexander Zverev, who reached the semi-finals of the US Open and also won the Cincinnati Masters this year, was asked to rank the best hard-court players at the moment on the ATP tour.

The question came at the post-match press conference of ATP Vienna Open, where the German defeated Filip Krajinovic in straight sets and reached the third-round.

Zverev’s record on hard-courts has been impressive as he won 11 out of his 17 tour-level titles on this surface. Due to this, the German confidently put himself alongside the likes of Djokovic and Medvedev as better hard-court players.

Alexander Zverev puts himself alongside Djokovic and Medvedev as better hard-court players

“If I have to make a ranking based on hard courts. I would say Djokovic, Medvedev and me”, Zverev said.

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The former world no.3 later clarified on not putting Stefanos Tsitsipas in the mix and turned extra cautious, asking the reporters to not make a big deal out of this.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not taking out Tsitsipas of it. Please don’t start this thing of me against Stefanos, I’m in very good relationship with Stef right now and I have nothing against him”, the German concluded.

Zverev and Tsitsipas share a complicated relationship on the ATP tour

Recently, Zverev was one of the few players to have criticized Stefanos Tsitsipas’ long bathroom breaks after Andy Murray openly condoned the Greek after their first-round matchup at the US Open last month.

This could be the reason for the German to be on the defense and gave an additional clarification over his relationship with Tsitsipas. Both the players participated at the Laver Cup recently and contributed their best to let team Europe clinch the title for the fourth consecutive time.

Zverev’s record on the ATP tour this year has been a decent one as he managed to win two Masters 1000 titles(Madrid and Cincinnati) along with semi-final appearances at Roland Garros and US Open. His gold medal at Tokyo Olympics tops all of his achievements on the ATP tour this season.

Despite the consistency, the German couldn’t defeat a top-10 player at slams this year, an aspect Zverev hopes to achieve during the majors next year. Coming to the Erste Bank Open, Alexander Zverev will have to put in his best efforts to reach the quarter-finals as he faces Alex de Minaur next.

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