Alexander Zverev has come under fire for his performance, and subsequent post-match press conference, following his exit from the Italian Open.<\/p>\n
Zverev was stunned by Luciano Darderi in Rome, despite convincingly taking the first set 6-1 against the Italian. The German lost a second set tie-break, before capitulating completely with a 6-0 loss in the decider.<\/p>\n
The World No. 3 was far from happy with the conditions and slammed the Italian Open following his defeat to Darderi, which has proven to be very controversial.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was difficult to play. I mean, to be honest, the court, I think this is the worst court I\u2019ve ever played on. Juniors, professional, futures, practice, I never player on a court where the court quality is that bad,\u201d said Zverev.<\/p>\n
Those comments, and his worrying performance, have been questioned by 1976 French Open champion, Adriano Pannata<\/a>.\u00a0Speaking on La Telefonata<\/a>, former World No. 3 Panatta was not impressed by Zverev\u2019s<\/a> display against Luciano Darderi<\/a> in the round of 16.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched the highlights of the match. Honestly, I\u2019ve reached a point where, on principle, I don\u2019t even watch Zverev anymore, because I get bored,\u201d said the Italian.<\/p>\n Alexander Zverev takes issue with the way he is treated by the media \u2013 \u2018Stop wasting my time\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Luciano Darderi responds to Alexander Zverev complaints<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI already know what he\u2019s going to do. Anyone can win the first set and then let the second slip away, even with multiple match points. That happens. But what\u2019s more worrying is that he simply didn\u2019t play the third set. He sometimes reacts like a child.\u201d<\/p>\n Zverev\u2019s defeat to Darderi is not the first time he has lost to a player ranked below him so far this season.<\/p>\n The German has also suffered defeats to Flavio Cobolli<\/a> in Munich, Miomir Kecmanovic in Acapulco, and Hubert Hurkacz<\/a> at the United Cup.<\/p>\n Every other of Zverev\u2019s defeats have come against either Jannik Sinner<\/a> and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, as he continued to trail the best two players in the world.<\/p>\n Zverev will now head to Roland Garros<\/a>, where he will be the second seed at the Grand Slam. He will be placed in the opposite side of the draw to Sinner, so will be one of the favourites to reach the final.<\/p>\n Without Alcaraz, it will arguably be Zverev\u2019s best-ever chance to reach a Grand Slam final. The German has previously reached three Grand Slam finals in his career, losing each of them.<\/p>\n The star was beaten in the 2020 US Open<\/a> final by Dominic Thiem; the 2024 Roland Garros final by Alcaraz, and the 2025 Australian Open<\/a> by Sinner.<\/p>\n The German will be hoping to end his long-awaited career goal of winning a Grand Slam in Paris.<\/p>\n The post Alexander Zverev branded a \u2018child\u2019 after his behaviour at the Italian Open<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alexander Zverev has come under fire for his performance, and subsequent post-match press conference, following his exit from the Italian Open. Zverev was stunned by Luciano Darderi in Rome, despite convincingly taking the first set 6-1 against the Italian. The German lost a second set tie-break, before capitulating completely with a 6-0 loss in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Alexander Zverev news<\/h2>\n