Alexander Zverev is not impressed by the favoritism shown to his quarterfinal opponent, Carlos Alcaraz, at the 2022 Roland Garros.
Zverev will meet Alcaraz for the second time in this year's clay-court tournament. The young Spaniard beat the German in the Madrid final in early May. The third seed has slammed the tournament organizers for their unbalanced scheduling.
The Tokyo gold medalist bemoaned that Alcaraz has been allocated two night sessions and Philippe Chatrier, the main court, at the tournament, which is a lot according to his eyes.
Zverev also opined the fact that he's the higher-ranked player and only played one match on Chatrier. He is of the view that Alcaraz has not earned the right to benefit from good scheduling from the tournament compared to the likes of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who have every 20 and 21 slams, respectively.
"We [Alcaraz and myself] have Novak and Rafael on our side of the tournament. And it is normal, if they are on your side of the tournament they get what they want, and that’s okay"— Zverev in an interview with Eurosport Germany
"One of them won 20 Grand Slams, the other 21. And that is proper. That is totally fine for me. But it is very interesting to see that Alcaraz gets what he wants. We all have played a couple of times on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Myself three times, Novak twice, even Rafa. But Alcaraz plays every match on Philippe-Chatrier."
"I get that he is the exciting new mega talent in tennis. I am still the No 3 in the world, but this is nothing about me. We have Rafa and Novak on our side of the tournament and they need to make room, so that somebody else can play on the main court that hasn’t already multiple times. This is extremely interesting for me."