Alexander Zverev expressed his surprise at the fact some have written Novak Djokovic off as he labelled the tennis icon “underrated” after the pair’s French Open clash.
Djokovic delivered a stellar performance to earn a decisive 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Zverev in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
The 38-year-old has been viewed by some as an outsider for the French Open title, although Zverev disagreed with the suggestion the Serbian could ever be a “black horse” ahead of the quarter-final.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion has lost his opening match at four tournaments this year, but he arrived in Paris in form after securing his 100th career title at the Geneva Open.
Djokovic, who won his most recent major at the 2023 US Open, was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in January and a runner-up at Wimbledon last year.
In his press conference, Zverev was asked if he expected Djokovic to be able to play in the way he did for three hours and 17 minutes.
“What do you want me to say? He’s won 24 of these things,” replied the world No 3.
“Yes, I expected him to be able to play like this. I have not seen him play like this this year yet.
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“I think it was a very, very high level from him. It was, at some point, difficult for me. In the first set, when the sun wasn’t completely down, there was still some heat on the court. I felt like I could still hit some winners and do some damage with my serve.
“Then later on, when it got really really cold, I couldn’t really do much. I, at some point, felt like I didn’t know how to win a point from the baseline against him.
“I thought he was having solutions to a lot of things I was doing. Credit to him. He played better than me today.”
Zverev then addressed whether the tennis world is underappreciating what Djokovic is achieving at the age of 38.
“Yeah, I think at the moment he’s a bit underrated, to be honest,” said the German. “Funny that you say that.
“I think a lot of people count him out already. This year, he’s had a win over Alcaraz at the Australian Open and he’s had a win over me at the French Open. Forget the age, I think for any player those are pretty good results.
“Of course, you’d have to ask him how he feels physically and how he will recover… if he’ll be 100% for the next match, because I do think it was quite a physical match for both of us.
“But he’s still beating the best of the best, so I think everybody needs to respect that.”
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