"I was denied very quickly" - Alexander Zverev reveals he was snubbed in favor of Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open

Alexander Zverev clinched his spot in the semifinal of the 2025 Australian Open after a grueling battle in the hot sun of Melbourne. He defeated 12th seed Tommy Paul in his second quarterfinal appearance [7-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-1].

The first two sets were fiercely contested, but in tie-breakers, the German stepped up and clinched both sets. Zverev even accepted that Paul was the better player in the first three sets, but somehow, he managed to win them.

The World No. 2 shared his feelings about his love for night matches and how he was rejected when he requested a night match today. Zverev said:

“I absolutely love playing night matches here, I really do. Because I don’t know why but I just feel the ball so well on my racket and during the day I kind of struggle a little bit more. But I am in the semifinal somehow and I am happy about that. Of course, I totally understand that Novak against Carlos is probably the highlight match of the tournament. I tried to request a night match but I was denied very, very quickly.”

Zverev was not offered the night match because of the tournament's clash: Novak Djokovic vs. Carlos Alcaraz, which is scheduled to be played in the night session. When asked about the consistency of performances, he said:

“Yeah, very good. you know, I was very uncertain coming into this tournament. I had a little bit of an arm injury and, had to pull out of the United Cup, so I didn't have the preparation that I really wanted, you know, but I played well in the first few matches and that gave me a lot of confidence for the tough battles like today and, 2 days ago and, you know, I'm looking forward to hopefully two more matches to play for me.”

Alexander Zverev did not play any of the warm-up tournaments before the Grand Slam and even pulled out of the singles during the quarterfinal of the United Cup because of a bicep strain. Because of his lack of match practice, he was unsure about entering the tournament but is quite content with his results.

Alexander Zverev into his third Australian Open semifinal

Alexander Zverev after his win at the quarterfinal of 2025 Australian Open - Source: Getty

This is Zverev’s third semifinal appearance at the Australian Open and ninth overall in Grand Slams. The German star has shown remarkable consistency throughout the tournament, displaying powerful serves and aggressive baseline play.

Zverev will face the winner of the highly anticipated clash between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz on Friday, January 24.

The World No. 2 is at his career-high ranking. In his 11 years of professional career, he has not been able to win a major title despite reaching the finals of two Grand Slams, notably, the 2020 US Open and 2024 French Open. Nonetheless, he has shown great potential to change that around this time.