INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 11, 2021

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you feel after a full week playing at such high level? How are you adapting to the different conditions in Rome? How was your first practice?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I mean, it's obviously very different. I think the altitude is probably the biggest role that there is. Look, it's a good problem to have. If you are coming so late from Madrid, it means you've done well. I would like to have that problem always at tournaments.

I'm looking forward to this week. I'm looking forward to being able to back my form up. I hope I can do that.

Q. It's a follow-up to my previous question in Madrid. We saw that no German press was following you when you were doing interview. I'm asking you, what happened? How do you explain it? Is it because they don't like you? Because you offended somebody? I don't know. In the media, the written media, some German papers wrote about you? They put a picture of you or not? Have they abandoned you completely?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No (laughter). First of all, what I said there was not very serious. It was because you asked me the question if I want to take an Italian passport because so many fans, people were interested in me. It was a joke more that I said, Okay, you see, nobody cares about me in Germany. It was not like that. I didn't mean it in a way how people took it.

I know there's a lot of people writing about it now. If I had known it, I would not have said it. It was something I said without thinking about it.

No, I did a few interviews. I had a few phone calls with German press after the match. Yeah, there was still I think a lot in Germany, a lot of people wrote about it. It was on TV.

Yeah, it's not like there was nothing. It was more because you asked me the question, then afterwards was like a humorous thing. Of course, the press doesn't take it that way. I forgot how it works sometimes.

Q. You've always proven time and time again when you're playing at your best, you can and you do win these big events. Coming from altitude to Rome, how do you transfer that to maintain week in and week out?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Usually when I find my form, I don't have a problem maintaining it. If you look at the past history a little bit, I mean, when I won Madrid in 2018, I made finals here. Doesn't mean I'm going to make finals here again. I hope I can continue this.

This is obviously a completely different event, completely different conditions. I need some getting used to time. Yeah, I hope I continue playing the same way. We'll see how that goes then.