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Alexander Zverev began his Wimbledon campaign with a straight-sets win over Tallon Griekspoor on Tuesday. The German has never been past the fourth round at SW19, but he is one of the favorites to challenge for the title this year.
Zverev has improved by leaps and bounds in Majors in recent years. The German has reached the second week at every Slam since the 2019 Wimbledon. He reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open last year and followed it up with a run to the final of the US Open.
Speaking to the media after his win over Griekspoor, Zverev declared he was happy with his Slam performances of late. Asked about potentially playing the title match at Wimbledon against defending champion Novak Djokovic, the fourth seed sounded optimistic about his chances.
"If you give me a paper, I'll sign it right now," he said. "Everybody said about me that I couldn't do good results in Grand Slams, but before I was 19, 20 or 21 years old and I was young. Playing well in Grand Slams is something different than playing well in other tournaments."
Despite his success at Masters 1000 tournaments and the season-ending ATP Finals, Zverev is yet to win a Grand Slam and the German admitted he was unsure when he'll be able to get his hands on a Major.
"I have won Masters 1000, the Nitto ATP Finals in London, I have been number three in the world. I have been the first of the young boys to do this kind of thing," he said. "Since the Australian Open 2020 I have reaped good results in these types of tournaments, but I don't know when I'll be able to win one. I hope sometime I can get it."
The German said he plans to cool off after the match by watching Germany's blockbuster Euro 2020 clash against England. Zverev believes the winner of this contest could reach the final.
"I will be ten minutes answering questions and then I will go to watch the game. I hope to see a fun game and that Germany wins. It will be fun if we do it on penalties (laughs)," he added.
"The German team always in its history have suffered in the group stage, but in the final rounds they have always managed to be at their best level. It will be a very tough match and whoever wins will possibly go to the final of the tournament, since they are the two strongest teams in this part of the table."
I have no doubt, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are the three greatest players of all time: Alexander Zverev
The Big 3 of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have dominated the tour for the better part of a decade and a half. Among them, the trio has won 16 of the last 17 Grand Slam titles.
With Nadal giving Wimbledon a miss owing to exhaustion after a grueling clay campaign, defending champion Novak Djokovic and eight-time winner Roger Federer are the favorites to go all the way.
When asked about the exploits of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, Zverev admitted that despite the prospects of younger players being hampered by the presence of the trio, he did not want them to step away any time soon.
"I have no doubt that Nadal, Federer and Djokovic are the three greatest tennis players of all time. It's simple. We all hope they will keep playing for a long time," Zverev said.
"Obviously for us they are a hindrance because they keep winning Grand Slams, but we also understand how much they mean for tennis and how much they mean for sport in general. There will never be anyone better than them and when they decide to retire we will all miss them."
Zverev will take on the winner of the match between Tennys Sandgren and Norbert Gombos for a place in the third round.
