Pressure is off Zverev but Sinner will 'become an even stronger player' Italian tennis chief says

Now, Zverev feels, more Grand Slam titles are a possibility.

“It happened for me very early at the Masters Series because I won one when I was 20 years old, and I’ve won a lot of Masters after that,” said Zverev, who has won seven Masters 1000s — the tournaments just below the Grand Slams in terms of importance. “So I had that release at a Masters-level event very quickly, and at a Grand Slam it took longer.

“Now, no matter what happens, I will always be a Grand Slam champion, and nobody can take that away from me,” Zverev added. “Maybe that does give me some freedom. Maybe my mind will just be a little bit calmer when I play a final, meaning that even if I lose it, I will still be a Grand Slam champion.”

Zverev won’t have to wait long to find out how he plays in a major as a Grand Slam champion: Wimbledon starts in exactly three weeks.

It was at Wimbledon where Zverev made his Grand Slam debut as an 18-year-old back in 2015. In all, Zverev has played 125 matches across tennis’ four majors: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He lost three Grand Slam finals before finally beating Flavio Cobolli in the Roland Garros championship match on Sunday.

According to statistics provider Opta, the next players in the professional era (since 1968) on the list of most Grand Slam matches before winning a title are: Goran Ivanisevic with 105 before he won Wimbledon in 2001 and Andy Murray with 100 before he won the U.S. Open in 2012.

Ivanisevic never won another Grand Slam title, while Murray ended up with three.

At 29, Zverev potentially has many prime playing years remaining in his career.

But the main stumbling block for Zverev lately has been two guys named Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

Zverev has lost nine straight matches to the top-ranked Sinner and four of his last five against No. 2 Alcaraz.

Zverev took full advantage in Paris after Alcaraz had to skip the tournament due to an injured right wrist and Sinner was stunningly defeated due to physical issues amid a heat wave in the second round.

Sinner and Alcaraz had accounted for nine straight Grand Slam titles until Zverev’s victory.

While Alcaraz will also miss Wimbledon, Sinner will be defending his title at the All England Club.

Sinner's physical issues

Sinner came to Paris on a 29-match winning streak and was an overwhelming favorite for the title. But the Italian said he started feeling dizzy and “very low on energy” when he needed to win just one more game against 56th-ranked Juan Manuel Cerundolo. He ended up losing in five sets in one of the more memorable meltdowns in tennis history.

“He was winning too much; playing too much,” Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian tennis federation, told The Associated Press. “It was just fatigue.

“He still has margins for improvement. You can still learn things like increasing your stamina or improving your serve, as he’s done over the last two years. You can do that until you hit 30. So he’s going to become an even stronger player,” Binaghi added of Sinner, who is 24. “That’s the positive aspect: He can still improve and become an Iron Man like (Rafael) Nadal and (Novak) Djokovic.”

After wasting three points in last year’s French Open final against Alcaraz, Sinner came back and beat his Spanish rival a month later in the Wimbledon final.

“At Wimbledon he’s the strongest of anyone,” Binaghi said of Sinner. “He ought to win — we wouldn't expect anything else. But if for some reason he doesn’t win, we have other players, too.”

Indeed, Italy does have depth in men’s tennis right now with players like Cobolli, who just played his first Grand Slam final and made his debut in the top 10 of the rankings Monday at No. 10; Matteo Berrettini, a former Wimbledon finalist who made the quarterfinals in Paris and is considered one of the sport’s top grass-court players; and Lorenzo Musetti, a former Wimbledon semifinalist; among others.

Andreeva thanks herself

French Open women’s champion Mirra Andreeva concluded her victory speech during the trophy presentation by thanking herself — which has become a personal trademark for the 19-year-old Russian player.

So much so that she wore a black jacket during the ceremony featuring a patch that said, “I want to thank myself.”

Andreev explained later: “It’s one of my trademarks now to say that during my speech. In the beginning, I just said it to joke around and so everyone would laugh at how funny I am and at my humor.

“Then after I kind of realized, ‘Why not to thank yourself?’ Because you are the one that works, you are the one that is doing the job, you’re the one that (is) feeling all the nerves. … It’s actually very important to thank yourself.”

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis