Alexander Zverev believes he may have \u201cbroken the deadlock\u201d to challenge for the No 1 ranking after his Grand Slam breakthrough.<\/p>\n
In his fourth Grand Slam final, Zverev finally broke his duck in the majors after beating Flavio Cobolli in five sets to win his first Roland Garros crown.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old was under immense pressure to finally get over the line after Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the French Open<\/a> due to injury and Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic\u2019s early exits in Paris.<\/p>\n The 6ft 6in player held his nerve in an edgy encounter on Court Philippe Chatrier, as a lifelong dream was achieved in the French capital.<\/p>\n As he prepares to return to the ATP Tour<\/a> in Halle, in his first grass court event of the year, Zverev<\/a> has set his sights on ascending to the top of the rankings one day.<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner and fellow tennis stars \u2018considering\u2019 US Open boycott, according to a report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner\u2019s Wimbledon hopes dealt blow as Novak Djokovic tipped for glory<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n That will not be an easy task as he currently sits third, nearly 3,000 points adrift of Alcaraz<\/a> and more than 6,000 points behind the No 1 ranked Sinner.<\/p>\n However, it seems Zverev is of the view that this Grand Slam win can release the shackles around him.<\/p>\n He told Esquire<\/a>, \u201cI feel more complete now. It was always that one, all-important title that I was missing. Of course, there are milestones I still want to reach. Becoming world number one remains the ultimate goal. But the road to the top will be brutally tough.<\/p>\n \u201cThe two lads up there (Sinner<\/a> and Alcaraz) are playing incredible tennis. They\u2019re young and will dominate the tour over the next decade.<\/p>\n \u201cBut perhaps I\u2019ve finally broken the deadlock. If I can maintain the level I showed in Paris, anything is possible. Let\u2019s see what the future brings.\u201d<\/p>\n Zverev admitted that when Sinner and Djokovic<\/a> fell in the first week at the French Open, he endured a mental \u201cmarathon\u201d for the remainder of the tournament.<\/p>\n He was the overwhelming favourite to lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires and if he was unable to handle the pressure, that could have spelled doom for the 2021 Olympic Gold medallist.<\/span><\/p>\n He added, \u201cI knew that if I lost, I would be finished on this court. So I had to do everything I could to win that match. By the final, I was completely worn out, both physically and emotionally. At the end of the fourth set, I started getting cramps. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cStrangely enough, that actually helped me emotionally, because I was so distracted by it that I was able to let go mentally. My arm swung more freely, I played much more freely, despite the physical problems. The fifth set was then also the best.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Zverev continued, \u201cI feel as though I can win more tournaments, because I know how to do it. That\u2019s why the French Open was so important for me and my future.\u201d<\/p>\n While Zverev is just 6-7 down to Alcaraz in their head to head, it seems there is more of a matchup issue against Sinner.<\/p>\n The Italian has won nine matches in a row against Zverev, with the 24-year-old leading their head to head 10-4.<\/p>\n Many of those victories have come in the best of three format, with Sinner racing away to comprehensive wins. So it remains to be seen if Zverev can take his game to their level.<\/p>\n WHAT ELSE? Queen\u2019s Club: How many ranking points and prize money did Donna Vekic and Emma Raducanu earn?<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The post Alexander Zverev sends major warning to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner after French Open win<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alexander Zverev believes he may have \u201cbroken the deadlock\u201d to challenge for the No 1 ranking after his Grand Slam breakthrough. In his fourth Grand Slam final, Zverev finally broke his duck in the majors after beating Flavio Cobolli in five sets to win his first Roland Garros crown. The 29-year-old was under immense pressure […]<\/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-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331","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=2331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/strong><\/h2>\n