US OPEN

September 11, 2026

Alexander Zverev

Press Conference

A. ZVEREV/K. Khachanov

6-3, 7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Sascha, a highly-contested, three-set win. We advance and move on. Your thoughts?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Straight-set win, but anything but straightforward in a way. He played incredibly well. Fought incredibly well.

Second and third set I think it's more than obvious that they could have gone both ways. I just played a few points better here and there, and I'm happy with the win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You referenced not playing well at the start of the tournament when you were in your on-court interview. Have you ever had a tournament where you've started at a lower level and made so much improvement across the duration of it, if it was low for you and it became an extreme high?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: That's a great question. I feel like when I made the final here in 2020, I didn't play well, but I didn't play well that entire tournament. That never changed, funny enough, and I made it to the final, and I was two points away from winning.

But I think the improvement has been quite dramatic for me. It's a great thing, because I really started off the tournament, and I was, like, Well, this is pointless because I'm not going to do anything here, and here I am sitting and preparing for a Sunday final.

Things like that can happen in sports and tennis. In general, things can change very quickly for the positive or negative. For me, luckily, it was for the positive. Now I'm going to do everything I can to prepare for Sunday.

Q. Can I ask you about the ball bouncing? It seems to be like really increased.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I have no idea why. I'm not doing it on purpose. I saw the stat. Like, I bounced it 12,000 times or something like that (laughing). That's quite funny.

Q. Are you trying to get a certain --

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No, I'm not counting in my head. I'm not getting a certain number or anything like that. I don't know why it increased so much. I think today it decreased again, because I saw it before the semifinal, so I was, like, Okay, it's got to go less.

Then I forget about it every once in a while, and then it goes up to I don't know what number it is.

Q. What happens that makes you stop and be like, Okay, now I got it out, and now I can serve?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No clue. Really, honestly, no idea.

Q. Just talking a little bit about these last six years, because obviously the 2020 final was a very strange atmosphere. Nothing going to be similar to that on Sunday. And just your own sort of journey in these last six years between US Open finals.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, I think a lot has happened. I've played in a lot of other finals. I've played a lot of big matches since then.

Back then, of course, it was my first Grand Slam final. I was inexperienced. I was still a young guy, I would say. Yeah, just different. Everything is different.

I am pretty sure that the atmosphere is going to be very, very different on Sunday as well no matter who I play, but I'm looking forward to that. I think it's going to be a fantastic feeling playing, you know, a final in a sold-out Arthur Ashe and not in an empty one.

Q. Did 2020 leave any particular scar tissue for you?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: It did until I won in Paris. I think there was question marks, there was doubts whether I was ever going to win one for sure. I talked about it quite openly before.

Now that I've won one, it's okay.

Q. At the end of last year, you talked about the importance of playing more aggressive tennis, and that's shown itself particularly in the Wimbledon final and many other matches this year. When you are in the moment, is there a conscious decision or a conscious effort you have to make to make yourself do that, like, say you did at the end of the match today?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I would say no. I would say it's a conscious decision that you're doing it in practice every single day so that it becomes automatic in a match.

In a match, you shouldn't think. You shouldn't think of whether I should make this decision now or this decision now. I think everything should just be a flow.

The flow starts with how you practice and what you do in practice. It's as simple as that, because in tennis you've got a maximum amount of one second between every shot. You don't have time to think. You shouldn't be thinking.

I think it's about the practice sessions that you do beforehand.

Q. As you mentioned, a sold-out Ashe Stadium for Sunday. You'll be facing an American.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah.

Q. We don't know which one yet, but you have a very strong record against both those players. What are your thoughts about them individually, starting with Frances, please?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Frances is somebody that can do anything with a tennis ball. He can be aggressive. He can also mess around with it a little bit. He can be tricky to play, for sure. I have massive respect for him. Also, I've known him for almost 20 years now, similar to Karen, actually.

And Ben, Ben is just a big, powerful guy. Massive serve, massive groundstrokes. Everything he does is just big.

They're a bit of a different style of tennis player, but they're both very exciting, I think.

Q. Is the crowd a challenge or something different for you, do you think?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No, I enjoy these kind of atmospheres. I've said it before. I played a lot of French guys in France. I think the most hostile crowd, if you call it that, is when you are playing a French in Paris Bercy back in the day. There was quite intense, and I always enjoyed those. I always enjoyed those kind of atmospheres.

Of course, I played Australian guys in Australia. I played Arthur Fery in Wimbledon. The Wimbledon crowd is a bit different, though. There's no question about that.

For me, a loud and energetic crowd is always great, as long as they're fair, as long as they don't interrupt in the middle of points. Other than that, I always enjoy these kind of atmospheres.

Q. The general impression is that you changed after you won Paris. Now you're more relaxed. You smile much more and so on. I saw smiling also your father in these days.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Really? I didn't. It's very rare, very rare. I didn't see that.

Q. Yeah, so is also the team more confident, I mean, more relaxed when you are with your brother, father? The old Zverev have changed or not?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: No, I think not much has changed, to be honest. I think, yeah, of course, winning one was the ultimate goal, but now we want more. We want to achieve bigger things.

We are still working very hard towards that. We're still very focused towards that, and I think everybody has still a goal in their vision.

Q. So you have more Grand Slam finals than both Carlos and Jannik this year, and you may actually end up with more titles than them. Is that something you would have thought might be possible back in December?

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I thought it's -- I believed in it. I believed that it's possible. I think not many of you guys did (laughing).

I think the question was always is Carlos and Jannik going to play all four Grand Slam finals between each other again.

Q. (Off microphone.)

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yeah, of course, a very legit question with how the last two years went. I mean, I'm happy with how this year went so far, but I've got another big match on Sunday, and that's my focus.