Zverev démonte le 'Big Three' et révèle le rival le plus difficile de sa carrière

Alexander Zverev is one of the standout names of 2026. This season, the German tennis player has taken a step forward and has finally achieved his long-awaited Grand Slam at Roland Garros. In a recent interview, he shared his thoughts on who is the toughest opponent he has faced and the differences between facing the 'Big Three', Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

In an interview with Knossi, Zverev stated, "The most challenging opponent I have faced is Djokovic. Actually, with Roger Federer, I have a good balance, although I also lost a fair amount of matches, and there were days when you couldn’t beat him. But overall, he played very fast, and I had the ability to play faster than him, and he didn’t like that, I knew. I had a tactic against him that I knew how it worked. I have won more times against him than I have lost."

He also highlighted that "against Nadal, at the beginning of my career, he was too strong physically for me. I was too thin, I didn’t have the physical strength. We always had very close matches, but in the beginning, he always beat me because I would get tired. That changed suddenly when I was 23, 24 years old. Since then, I have won against him 3 or 4 times in a row. Against Djokovic, we have always had very good matches, always in very good situations. He has beaten me more times, but he has beaten everyone more times."

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Zverev prefers playing against Alcaraz rather than Sinner

The million-dollar question arose between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, and that's where 'Sascha' revealed that he currently doesn't enjoy playing against the world number 1 as much. "At the beginning of my career, I really enjoyed playing against Sinner, and now in the last 7 or 8 matches, I have lost. He has improved his game a lot, he is very consistent and doesn’t give you anything. Now you feel like you are playing catch-up throughout the match."

A completely different opinion from his rivalry with Alcaraz, as he tends to have more opportunities during the match. "I really enjoy playing against Alcaraz. Sometimes I lose, sometimes I win, but with him, the matches are always incredible. We always have amazing matches, tough battles, like this year in Australia, where we played for 5 hours and 30 minutes, and in the end, I lost, but it's very fun to play against him," he concluded.

Zverev reveals the nerves he felt in the Roland Garros final

Another key moment of the interview was when Zverev unveiled the nervousness he experienced in the Roland Garros final, admitting that "for me, that day, until the moment I won, wasn’t beautiful. I had a lot of stress, I was very panicked. Throughout the tournament, I handled nerves well. Sinner was eliminated, Djokovic too, and I made it to the final. It was a quite tough final day, I was very very nervous. Also, I knew the final wasn't against Alcaraz or Sinner, it was against Flavio Cobolli, a player I had to beat."

With these words, he didn't want to belittle the Italian, who is his friend, and he ended by saying, "he is a good player, no doubt. He is an excellent guy, but I had to win that final. I'm 29 years old, I don't know how many more chances I would have. Moreover, so many years have passed... It was what I lacked because I have won at all levels in the tennis world. I have won the Olympic gold, ATP 250, ATP 500, Masters 1000... The only thing I was missing was the Grand Slam title. Now that I have it, I can relax a bit."

Olympic gold still ranks higher than a Grand Slam

However, no matter how many Grand Slam titles he may have won, for Zverev, his Olympic gold will always be incomparable. "I waited a long time to win a Grand Slam, and the Olympic gold came early in my career but it was even more special to me. I don't know why, but the feeling was even more intense and stronger. You were in the Olympic village, you lived in a German home, the whole German home was excited... When I returned home, I realized what the Olympic gold meant to the entire nation."

"I can't explain it, but the feeling was completely different. I had never had that feeling in a tennis tournament," he concluded. Now that he has achieved every goal he set at the beginning of his career, the German player has shed a load off his shoulders and is playing at the best level of his career, so his list of achievements may continue to expand and his goals may become even greater.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Zverev desglosa al "Big Three" y desvela el rival más difícil de su carrera