Alexander Zverev made some harsh comments about the balls used at the Rio Open just before suffering a shock loss.
On Friday, the top seed saw his campaign end in the quarterfinal after world No. 86 Francisco Comesana completed an upset 4-6 6-3 6-4 win.
But even before exiting the tournament, the world No. 2 struggled – he overcame Bu Yunchaokete 7-6 (4) 6-4 before edging out Alexander Shevchenko 7-6 (1) 7-6 (6) in the round-of-16.
“I’ve had some difficulties with the balls here, the Wilson balls tend to be flat, which isn’t good for my elbow,” Zverev said after beating Shevchenko in two tight sets.
“This is another issue that players have been talking about a lot over the last year, two years, a lot.”
After these comments, the German struggles continued against Comesana and it all resulted in him ending his run earlier than expected.
What Zverev said about Rio de Janeiro after the shock loss?
Although the 27-year-old’s debut at the Rio Open didn’t go as planned and he criticized the balls, he actually spoke positively about the tournament after the Comesana loss.
Last week, the world No. 2 played in Buenos Aires, where he was upset by Francisco Cerundolo in the quarterfinal.
“Better level than Buenos Aires but unfortunate to finish the tournament like this,” Zverev said after his Rio Open exit.
“I still enjoyed my time in Rio and hope to come back. It’s one of the most beautiful 500s that I’ve ever played. Shame because I was in a winning position.”
Now, the three-time Grand Slam finalist will return to hard and start preparing for the Indian Wells Masters.
So far this year, the 27-year-old has been playing pretty well on hard as he is 8-1 on the surface – he won both of his United Cup matches and also made the Australian Open final before losing to Jannik Sinner.
Tennis World USA