"Stefanos played 10 times better, so he deserved to win at the end of the day" - Alexander Zverev after losing to the Greek in Monte-Carlo SF

Alexander Zverev has heaped praise on Stefanos Tsitsipas, admitting that the Greek played 10 times better than him during their semifinal at the Monte-Carlo Masters on Saturday.

The two locked horns for the 10th time and the Greek won 6-4, 6-2 to seal his place in the final for the second straight year.

In his post-match press conference, Zverev revealed that an issue with his leg affected his serve.

"Yeah, at the end of the day I think I was quite limited in what I did today," Zverev said. "You know, I said also in the match yesterday already in the end I was struggling a little bit with my serve because of my leg. But at the end, yeah, I was limited a little bit today. Yesterday obviously took a lot out of me. I think the issue with my leg didn't help.

"But, yeah, I mean, Stefanos played 10 times better than me, so he deserved to win at the end of the day," he added. "Nothing more to say. Yeah, I wish him good luck in the final."

Despite the defeat, Zverev said that he had a positive week in Monte-Carlo.

"But all in all, it was a positive week for me," he said. "I played good matches here. Yeah, in Miami I got ill. Here I got a little bit injured. I feel like things keep happening that are a little bit out of my control, which is a little bit upsetting for me."

After beating Zverev, Tsitsipas will take on Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the final of the Monte-Carlo Masters on Sunday. The Spaniard made his first Masters 1000 final after defeating Grigor Dimitrov in three sets.

Alexander Zverev will next compete at the BMW Open

Alexander Zverev is the top seed at the BMW Open

After his run to the semifinals in Monte-Carlo, Alexander Zverev will compete at the BMW Open in Munich, starting 23 April. The German is the top seed and will be a heavy favorite to win the competition, having lifted the trophy previously in 2017 and 2018.

The 24-year-old was seeded No. 1 in last year's tournament as well and reached the quarterfinals, where he lost to Ilya Ivashka in three sets.