ROLAND GARROS

May 31, 2026

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

A. ZVEREV/J. De Jong

7-6, 6-4, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Sascha, well done. After a slow start, how happy are you with your performance today?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, good match. I think after 3-0, I found my rhythm. It was, I think, a very solid match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. How do you feel the first time you are the top favorite of a slam tournament? It is the first time it happens. Don't tell you that you didn't think about, that doesn't put you any pressure.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Why don't you just give the answer, then (smiling)? No, I will give the same answer I gave two days ago. I will focus on the matches that are ahead of me. This is the only thing that I can control.

I focused on de Jong, I played a good match. I won. I'm going to focus on Jodar next and hopefully play a good match. That's the only thing that is in my concern.

Q. Loads of long matches going on elsewhere. You have been able to be quite economical certainly today. How are you feeling physically?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I feel fine. I felt like the previous match was still challenging, but I feel good.

For me, as long as my tennis is coming together and I feel well on the court and confident, I'm happy.

Q. Back's okay?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, my back is fine, yeah. Thanks.

Q. If you have to control what you can control, did you change some of your habits, doing less social media, giving less interviews, something that would isolate you from the climate that we have in the press conference for today?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: My phone is off, but it's been off for, like, seven years during Grand Slams. I don't have social media.

Q. Do you remember what it was like when you were sort of the player in Jodar's position, where sort of this young guy who is taking everything by storm? I mean, what is it like now when a young player like that comes on like that? What did it feel like for you at the time?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, it's a fun time. It's a fun time for any player when you're first coming up because you got no pressure. You play freely. You experience all these big things for the first time. It's a lot of fun to be in that position.

But I think it's also fun to be in a position that I'm in where I have been at this level for 10 years, and, you know, I play my matches, I know how to handle certain situations.

But, yeah, I think he's amazing. He was outside top 100 at the start of the clay court season, something like that? Close to it? And now he's top 20 after this week?

Yeah, he deserves a lot of credit. He's playing amazing tennis. Yeah, I'm looking forward to our first meeting, which is going to be hopefully an entertaining one.

Q. In terms of the heat and what we've seen this week, do you think they need to change the heat rule protocols at all? Is it different for a clay slam, the matches are more grueling than maybe on hard courts?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, it's difficult for me to answer, because I like heat. I always did. I always felt comfortable in the heat.

The only time I really didn't feel comfortable was in Tokyo in the Olympics, and that moment, it was different kind of heat. We were all dying on the court.

Overall, I don't know, there has been, yeah, brutal matches, there has been very tough conditions, but those kind of matches, I think, would have been brutal anywhere with how long they were, with how the rallies were.

So I don't know. I'm not a politician. I don't know what the rules are (smiling).

Q. How much have you been able to see of Rafa Jodar? What stands out to you? What kind of do you think he does particularly well?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I watched him throughout the clay court season quite a bit. I didn't watch him this tournament because we were always playing the same day, and time-wise it was difficult to watch.

But he's somebody that can accelerate the ball from both sides, which is incredibly special. I think, yeah, he's a very aggressive player. He's very young. He has tremendous talent.

Again, I'm looking forward to our first meeting together.

Q. When you were growing up, what, roughly, was the percentage of you playing on clay, hard, and indoor carpet? Was clay your standard surface?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Well, in Germany it was indoor carpet and clay. Hard courts, I have not played on a hard court until the age of 12, probably. So mostly, yeah, it was carpet and clay.

Throughout the summer season, Germany and the weather, you never know. So we try to play on clay as much as possible, but I think the main surface for us growing up was indoor carpet, which is not an easy surface to play on.

Q. Obviously there's so much talk about the expectation, the pressure, but how excited are you for the week ahead and the opportunity here?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Look, I'm here, I'm feeling confident with my game. I thought I handled the situations well the first week, even when I was losing a set. Like the last match, I came back and played well. Today I was down a break early on. Came back and played well.

I feel like I'm handling the situations quite well, and I will do everything possible to continue doing that.

Q. A few days ago you mentioned the fact that you sat down with your team at the end of last season or the beginning of this one saying something must change in your game. Can you give us more insight about the content of these talks or the conclusions?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I think I talked about it quite a lot. One thing was the opportunity to take more chances, take more risk.

I think ball speed was another one, to keep the ball speed up a little bit more on the groundstrokes. Different varieties, different changes like the dropshot, like serve and volley sometimes, all those things to just give a different perspective to the opponent.