	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 29, 2020

Alexander Zverev

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

A. ZVEREV/S. Wawrinka

1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What changed for you after that first set?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I didn't feel the ball quite well in the first set because I played all my matches in the evening when it was much, much colder. Today was very hot on court. The ball was flying off my racquet much more. He was also playing quite heavy. It was difficult to handle his ball.

Yeah, just got used to it a little bit more. Got used to it and could start playing my game a little bit better. Luckily I could turn it around.

Q. You must be happy to finally do a semifinal in a slam. I think Rafael Nadal would be happy, too, that his prediction was right. During all this time were you somehow impatient or you think it is normal that it took a while before this result?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I was very impatient. In a way, also was maybe paying attention to it too much, to the Grand Slams. You know what I mean? I was paying too much attention to them.

Everything else, I was just playing better tennis at the other tournaments. At Madrid, Rome, other Masters, the World Tour Finals. The Grand Slams maybe meant too much for me.

This year I actually came into the Australian Open with absolutely no expectations because I was playing horrible. At the ATP Cup I was playing bad, and the weeks before.

As I said to all of you guys, it's going to be a process beginning of the week with the first few matches. I hope I could just get through them and start playing them better as the tournament gets along.

This is what happened. I hope I can still continue to play better in the semifinals and hopefully maybe in the final. The people that I'm going to play are not getting worse.

Q. You made the commitment to bushfire relief. On court you said that your parents always said that money was to put to the help of others. Talk about that.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, my parents grew up in the Soviet Union, where you were a professional tennis player, my dad would make money outside the country, but he would have to give it away when he was getting into the country.

Funny enough, for them, you know, where they never had any money, you would think that now maybe we have some, you want to keep it all for yourself. But they always said that money is something that should cause change in the world and should be put into a good thing, not keep it in a bank account and do nothing with it.

Of course, if I win the $4 million, it's a lot of money for me. I'm not Roger, I'm not LeBron James, something like that. This is still big.

But at the same time I know that there's people right now in this country, in this beautiful country, that lost their homes and actually they need the money. They actually depend on it, building up their homes again, building up their houses again, building up the nature that Australia has, the animals as well.

I think there's much better use for those people with that money than I have right now.

Q. Before the tournament you said you were happy to fly under the radar because there was not that much spotlight because of your form. You've said you are happy on court and off it. Can you talk about it a bit.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I mean, if you're in the semifinals of a Grand Slam, of course there's going to be a spotlight on you a little bit. You cannot avoid it that much anymore, which is a good thing as well.

But yeah, as I said, happy outside the court, happy on the court. I have my best friend here, I have my team here, I have my girlfriend here, who are all understanding that I'm trying to do the best thing I can, who are all handling me in a perfect way.

Because sometimes, you know us tennis players, when something is not going well, we're not easy to deal with. Our life depends on tennis. They all understand that. They're all doing an amazing job, I would say, in controlling that.

Yeah, there's no reason for me to be upset or anything like that right now.

Q. Curious about the feelings that go through your mind in a situation like that. You're not done with your goal here yet. But to go where you haven't been before, is it more a sense of, I showed them or I showed myself?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I don't think about it. But what I am happy about is that everybody all of a sudden at the ATP Cup or last year had opinions that I need a new coach or I need a change in my team or I need to get a new physical trainer, new physio, whatever.

I was struggling with myself. My tennis was struggling because of me, not because of the work that everybody else was doing.

I am happy to show that I can still play good tennis with the team around me, with my father around, with Jez around, with Hugo around.

I have to prove a point to somebody? Do you have to prove a point to anybody in this world? Maybe to your parents, out of respect or something like that. But anybody else, this is your life. You do with it what you feel is right.

All I'm going to say, I'm always going to try my best. I am always going to do everything I can to win tennis matches, to at least do the best thing I can on the tennis court when I'm playing in front of people, just to have respect in front of the crowd.

Everything else is my decision, it's my parents' decision, the people that are involved. Nobody else's opinion really matters that much.

Q. The Australian public is starting to get behind this pledge. What has been the reaction inside the locker room?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, when I first said it, everybody came up to me: I really want to see you give that $4 million check to somebody else and not keep it.

Like, I am going to do it. It's not a problem for me.

Players couldn't really believe it. But as I said, at the same time there are other people that are more money-driven than me. I just believe with this money I could start something positive. This is what matters most to me, not what somebody else thinks about it.

Q. You mentioned on court about breaking the barrier. Can you elaborate on that given that you are the youngest of the semifinalists and you'll have to beat one of the big three to win the title?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Maybe two, so we'll see.

I did beat Stan just now, who is also a multiple-Grand Slam champion, which gives me a little bit of confidence that I can do it.

Yeah, I mean, I've done well at other tournaments. I've won Masters Series, World Tour Finals. But the Grand Slams were always the week where I kind of even wanted it too much. I was doing things in a way too professional. I was not talking to anybody. I wasn't going out with friends. I wasn't having dinner. I was just really almost too, too focused.

Changed that a little bit this week. I'm doing much more things outside the court. I also was playing that bad at ATP Cup that I didn't have any expectations. I wasn't really expecting myself in the semifinals or quarterfinals.

Maybe this is a steppingstone. Maybe this is how it should happen. We'll see how it goes now in two days' time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297