Alexander Zverev lost before making his way to the medal round at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the German quickly found a culprit.
When a tennis player loses a match, they are mostly to blame. After all, they are those out there on the tennis court competing and playing. If they lost a match, it means that they weren't as good as their opponent, which is why they lost.
That's generally the truth, but it is more nuanced than that because sometimes, things like the schedule can contribute to a player's loss. We've seen it happen in the past, and players have openly spoken about it.
Zverev wasn't particularly thrilled with how his Paris Olympics schedule played out. Scheduling the Olympics is generally very challenging because players often play both singles and doubles and sometimes mixed doubles.
Due to that, sometimes it's impossible to schedule it so that every player in the draw has sufficient time to rest. Zverev's previous match ended 18 hours before he had to play against Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-final, and he wasn't happy with it. Speaking with BILD after the match, Zverev admitted he was furious.
"I'm so angry, I can't even tell you. The scheduling is a disgrace."
To his credit, Zverev gave Musetti full credit after the match, admitting that the Italian was the better player in all aspects. The Italian is having a remarkable year, and he has been playing amazing tennis.
After beating Zverev in two sets, he will compete for a medal. As for the German, he seemingly wasn't 100% ready, as he admitted after the loss.
"Lorenzo was much better than me today, in all aspects of the game. It is upsetting when you know the Olympic Games is once every four years and that you're not 100 percent."
According to German, he wasn't feeling that well the entire week, and it was agonizing because the Olympics happen only every four years, so being unable to be at his best was very annoying.
He added that he would do some testing when he gets back to Germany to see if he was healthy. It doesn't seem like an injury, even though he has dealt with a knee problem fairly recently, but more so generally feeling unwell.
"I didn't feel good the whole week and the second round I felt horrible on the court after a set. I felt horrible by the end of the first set. It's upsetting. It's not how I physically want to be."
"I always took big pride in the fact that I thought I was one of the strongest physical players out there. It definitely was not the case this week and I have to see."
"I'm gonna go back home and do some blood tests and see if everything is OK. And if everything is OK, then take some rest and hopefully get back in good shape."