"A certain Novak Djokovic & Rafael Nadal have been doing it for the past 20 years" - Alexander Zverev on the importance of mental resilience in tennis

Alexander Zverev shed light on the importance of mental resilience in tennis by using the examples of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Since turning pro in 2001 and 2003, respectively, Nadal and Djokovic have won a plethora of titles on the tennis tour. They have won a combined 45 Grand Slam titles, 75 Masters 1000 trophies and have occupied the World No. 1 ranking for a total of 598 weeks.

After coming through a tough third-round contest with Grigor Dimitrov at the 2023 US Open, Zverev was asked about how he came through the hard-fought match in his on-court interview.

In reply, the German spoke about the importance of mental strength, something that the likes of Djokovic and Nadal have relied on to rule the sport for more than two decades.

"To be honest, it's all in your mind, it's all in your head, it's all in your brain. At the end of the day, we are all physically tough, we're all trained very hard. We're all trained six to seven hours a day all season. At the end of the day, sometimes it's about who's mentally tougher," he said.

"And you know there's a certain Novak Djokovic and a certain Rafa Nadal who have been doing it for the past 20 years and that's why they both won 23 and 22 Grand Slams. And I'm just trying to learn from them a little bit," he added.

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Alexander Zverev to face Jannik Sinner in 2023 US Open 4R

Jannik Sinner in action at the 2023 US Open.

Reaching the fourth round of the US Open has become a habit for Alexander Zverev. He has now made it this far at Flushing Meadows for the fourth time in the last five years — 2022 being the exception as he didn't take part in the event due to injury.

That said, Zverev was given a scare by Grigor Dimitrov in the third round on Saturday, September 2. After losing the opening set in a tiebreak, the Bulgarian bounced back to take the second in a similar fashion.

Just when it looked like Zverev would be in for a long night, he dug deep, found his rhythm, and took the following two sets by losing just two games to come through the contest with a 6-7(2), 7-6(8), 6-1, 6-1 scoreline.

In the Round of 16, the German is scheduled to face sixth seed Jannik Sinner, who defeated 2016 US Open champion Stan Wawrinka in four sets earlier in the day. Zverev holds the edge in the head-to-head with the Italian, having won three of their four meetings on the ATP tour to date, including at the New York Major two years ago.