Paris champion Zverev on how to reach world No 1: “You have to win Grand Slams”

Alexander Zverev was straight to the practice court after beating Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-2 to win the Rolex Paris Masters.

“For me, the result, it’s great. I’m extremely satisfied. I’m happy about it. But as I said in the beginning of the week, for me I want to improve some things for me to achieve my really big goals.

“I’m happy with the final. I’m happy with the tournament. Of course I’m sitting here with the trophy from a Masters 1000 event, but there are still some things I want to improve, and this is a process of a few months, and I’m improving for next year already hopefully.”

He hinted at what those really big goals might be when he spoke about his return to a career-high ranking of world No 2 – and speculated about how he could rise even higher.

“When everybody is playing and everybody is playing at full strength and everybody is healthy, you have to win Grand Slams to become world No 1. I’m world No 2 now, but I’m 3,000 points away from Jannik, more or less, maybe more, even. I think without the Grand Slams and without the points of the Grand Slams, it’s not possible anymore [to become world No 1].”

And he doesn’t intend to change his schedule too much as he tries to win that first elusive Slam.

“I played all the Masters events, which I will play next year, as well, for sure. I think they are the biggest tournaments that the ATP has. I will hopefully play all the Grand Slams. There is not that many tournaments that I played, actually. There is only very selective tournaments that I played. Of course with the Olympics this year, two tournaments came along which were more, Hamburg and Olympics.

“But apart from that, I didn’t play that extremely much. After the Australian Open, I took a month off. I only played two tournaments in Mexico before the Masters events. Then on clay, I played only Munich outside of Masters events. It’s not like I’m playing every single week and I’m chasing points.

“On grass I played one tournament before Wimbledon. After the US Open, I played only Shanghai, Vienna, and here. It’s not like I’m playing every single week. I have won a lot of matches, which is beneficial. Everybody wants to win a lot of matches, but I wouldn’t say I played a lot of tournaments this year.”

Zverev: Everyone is motivated in Turin

The German has the ATP Finals to contend with before he embarks on his campaign next year – a tournament he has won twice already. He does not underestimate the challenge it will present.

“For Turin, everybody becomes motivated. It’s such a special tournament. It’s such a special atmosphere and feeling when you’re there and only eight players in the world are there, so you feel special already playing there, so I think everybody is motivated. Everybody wants to win this title and play good tennis.”

He added: “Once you’re there, you’re going to give it your best, and everybody else will, as well. At the end of the day, you’re only playing the best eight players in the world. So there is no easy matches, and you have to play your best tennis from the first match on.”

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