Alexander Zverev made a brutal admission after beating Taylor Fritz at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships and being asked about his opponent.
The German player entered the match with Fritz as a favorite thanks to his strong performances in London up to that point, even though he struggled with an injury prior to the match.
Fritz is no stranger to playing well on grass, so he was certainly confident about giving his opponent some problems. He not only gave him problems, but he actually beat him, and that was after falling behind 0-2.
Zverev struggled with a knee injury that he picked up in his previous match against Cameron Norrie. After the match, he was open about how the match looked like from his point of view.
He praised Fritz for sticking through and winning in five sets while suggesting that he was playing the match on 'one leg'.
"There is two ways I can answer that question. First, of course, it is great he came back from two sets to love down, respect. (Pause) I was on one leg today. He is playing great, I think; he's also going to be in the semi-finals of Wimbledon; I do expect him to win in the quarters."
"But also, I do know that the match was not high level; it wasn't a particularly great tennis match. Credits to him that he came back, but it wasn't a great tennis match."
One player won and advanced to the next round, where he'll have a chance to play a better match while the other will be heading home. Zverev would have wanted to be the player who got to stay at SW19, and maybe the experience of a painful five-set loss was also one of the reasons why he saw the match result mostly as his shortcoming rather than his opponent's success.
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