“On Friday I’ll be the No 1 Medvedev fan there is on this planet – for a change” – Zverev
The German needs Medvedev to beat Alcaraz if he hopes to qualify for the semi-finals in Turin
Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev at the 2021 ATP Finals
Image Credit: Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic
Alexander Zverev lost to Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Finals on Wednesday, but the German will be cheering the Russian, with whom he has a strained relation in recent times, on in Turin on Friday on the final day of round-robin play, albeit for very selfish reasons.
Zverev needs Medvedev to beat Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the first match on Friday to keep his semi-final chances alive in the competition. A win for the Spaniard would eliminate the two-time champion at the season-ending ATP event from the competition.
“On Friday I’ll be No. 1 Daniil Medvedev fan there is on this planet – for a change (smiling). We’ll see how it goes,” Zverev said after his straight sets loss to the Russian, “As I said, it’s a little bit out of my hands. Of course, if Daniil wins, he’s playing very well, I think he does have a lot of chances to win. I have to be focused and be ready for 8:30 and be ready to beat Andrey (Rublev).”
It’s frustrating because I think the tennis that I played maybe deserved more than losing in straight sets in a way.
Alexander Zverev after his loss to Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday
On Wednesday, it was Zverev who went up an early break, holding a 4-1 lead over Medvedev before the Russian fought back to clinch his 11th win in 18 meetings over the German, including his fifth in six matches in 2023.
“At the end of the day I kind of gave that set away a little bit, if we’re going to be honest. I was 4-1 up, had quite an easy volley where I kind of just misjudged the ball a little bit. I didn’t see it correctly maybe. I thought the ball was closer to me than it was. I just kind of dunked it in the net,” Zverev said. “In the second set obviously we were holding serve, comfortable in our serves. Maybe I was even more comfortable than him. Then, yeah, I think not winning the first point in the 5-4 game, that was crucial. It went his way. It’s frustrating because I think the tennis that I played maybe deserved more than losing in straight sets in a way.”
In the other group, the two semi-finalists will be decided on Thursday with world No 1 Novak Djokovic, in-form Jannik Sinner and Denmark’s Holger Rune fighting it out for advancing to the knockout stage.
