Alexander Zverev jokingly said that Jannik Sinner sucks after being asked what the Italians' chances are to be world number one.
Only one player had a better time in Australia this year than Alexander Zverev, and that's Jannik Sinner. Zverev found himself and left the continent with a lot of confidence, which has manifested as a semi-final run at the Miami Open.
Sinner, on the other hand, went all the way to winning the Australian Open, and he certainly hasn't stopped since then. He lost only one match this year, and it was recently against Carlos Alcaraz at the Indian Wells Open.
As somebody who knows Sinner fairly well, Zverev was asked about his chances to become world number one in the coming months, and he could obviously see it happening. At the start, he squeezed in a joke, which got the room laughing.
"No, I think he sucks (laughter). Look, he won the Australian Open, won Rotterdam, and he's what, 19-1 so far this year? I think if you have these kind of statistics, it's very logical that you're on the right path and you're on the way to be there, right? Do I think that he's going to be as unbeatable as he is so far this year? I don't know. Because right now he's lost one match. It's unbelievable."
Zverev gave Sinner tremendous praise for what he's been able to do this year. As he pointed out, this start is very similar to the Big Three's when they ended up playing some historic seasons. Basically, the level is worthy of not only number one but also a legendary season.
"It's like a statistic like Djokovic started in his best years. Federer started like this in his best years. Rafa started like this I think once in his career. If he keeps it like that, then he's not only going to be No. 1 in the world, he's going to be No. 1 in the world for the next ten years. But it's up to him and it's also up to me, up to Carlos, up to Daniil, up to Novak as well to stop him from doing that."