“I did everything I could, fu**, there was some unlucky moments” - Alexander Zverev reflects on his loss to Carlos Alcaraz in French Open final

Alexander Zverev reflected on his loss to Carlos Alcaraz at the 2024 French Open. The German was defeated by the Spaniard 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 1-6, 2-6 in four hours and 19 minutes, making this his second Grand Slam final loss. The first one came to Dominic Theim at the 2020 US Open, where Zverev lost to the Austrian from a two-set lead.

During, the post-match press conference, the 27-year-old was asked whether he thought his performance against Alcaraz was better than his performance at the 2020 US Open. Zverev responded by saying that he did everything he could against the Spaniard but lamented the unlucky moments, hinting at the line-call controversy in the fifth set where an Alcaraz serve was called out but was overturned.

"Yeah, I mean look, I feel like I did everything I could today. The fifth set, fu**, there was some unlucky moments, I heard that at 2-1, the second serve was out from the Hawkeye data, I saw that," Alexander Zverev

The German acknowledged that the Spaniard played fantastic but things could've gone either way had the right call been made. As compared to his French Open run, Zverev admitted that he fell apart at the 2020 US Open

"You know, I break back there, I have chances than in the next service game, a fifth set can go the other way. But it is what it is."

"Look, he played fantastic, he played better than me the fourth and fifth set and it's how it is. I mean I felt like this Grand Slam final did everything I could. At the US Open, I kind of gave it away myself, so it's a bit different."

"I didn't get the power from my legs anymore, which was weird" - Alexander Zverev on how his body gave out during the French Open final

Alexander Zverev

Alexander Zverev shared that he lost his focus during the final against Carlos Alcaraz, He also added that he lost his leg strength, which he found weird as he never really got cramps or fatigue. The World No. 4 mentioned that it could be due to the intensity of the game that caused the fatigue.

"Yeah, I lost focus and all of a sudden on my serve I didn't get the power from my legs anymore, which was weird because normally I do not get tired. I don't cramp, I don't get tired normally, but again, against Carlos is a different intensity, so maybe that was the case a bit."

The German admitted that he needs to look into his preparation to compete at a higher level physically. He also mentioned that his level of tennis was decent during the first three sets but dipped in the final two.

"But yeah, maybe I have to look at my preparation, maybe I have to look at how I do things on a physical base as well. Of course, I felt like from the tennis level, I was playing decent and he was playing decent for three sets and then I dropped a lot."

Alexander Zverev will head to grass swing next and then return to clay for the Olympics.