Zverev: 'My Confidence Is Below Zero'
Alexander Zverev had never lost in the first round at Wimbledon before Monday, but the sixth seed still described his 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 loss to Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely as “typical”.
Zverev was off to a good start at the Grand Slam and won the opening set, but then the match went sideways.
“One or two things don't go my way, and everything kind of a little bit falls apart,” Zverev said. “It was kind of a typical Grand Slam match for me.”
The three-time ATP Masters 1000 titlist reached his second Grand Slam quarter-final last month at Roland Garros. But he said he's been feeling low on confidence, despite making the last eight in Paris and the quarter-finals at the NOVENTI OPEN, an ATP 500 grass-court event in Halle.
Before Halle, where Zverev is a two-time finalist, he lost his opener at the grass-court MercedesCup, dropping a three-setter to No. 170 Dustin Brown, who famously beat Rafael Nadal in the 2015 Wimbledon second round.
“I'm not very high on confidence right now. When I get to the important moments, I had, what, five, six break points in the fourth set alone? Can't take any of those. I had a 0/40, a 15/40. I'm down one break point myself and he takes it immediately, where I miss an easy volley,” Zverev said, describing match point in the fourth set. “I didn't lose this match on tennis. It's just my confidence is below zero right now.”
The German's best performance at SW19 came two years ago when he made the fourth round (l. to Raonic).
“Let's be realistic: grass is not my favourite surface if you look at the past. Even though I had a very good draw here, Wimbledon is always tough for me. Especially if I play someone like Vesely in the first round, who serves very well, I thought returned extremely well today,” Zverev said. “It's never easy.”