Alexander Zverev will be hoping for a change in fortunes at the Miami Open after struggling for form since losing in the Australian Open final.
Zverev lost in the Australian Open final to world number one Jannik Sinner, and has only won four of his eight matches since.
This includes his most recent defeat coming at Indian Wells, where Zverev set an unwanted record after being beaten by Tallon Griekspoor.
Zverev pinpointed his serve as a weakness in that defeat, as he looks to make changes to his game like he did with a key part of his equipment towards the latter stages of the 2024 season.
Alexander Zverev confirms why he changed his racket last year
Tennis balls being frequently changed has been a big topic of conversation on both tours, with Zverev linking it to injuries that he has struggled with himself.
While he has remained with the same manufacturer, Zverev has actually switched to a different edition of the Head Gravity range in recent months.
When speaking in his pre-tournament press conference ahead of ATP 1000 Miami Open, Zverev confirmed that he made this big change in the latter stages of the 2024 season to try and combat these ball changes.
“I made a massive switch last year after Shanghai,” said Zverev. “What lead to it was the tennis balls, the change of the tennis balls that we’ve had over the last few years. I played with a similar racket since 2009.”
Zverev is not the only player to have made comments on this issue concerning tennis balls, with Carlos Alcaraz also critical of the ATP Tour for this.
Alexander Zverev says whether he thinks Indian Wells could be a Grand Slam
Later on in his press conference, Zverev was questioned about Indian Wells, which was won by Jack Draper in the ATP singles field.
The Masters 1000 tournament is sometimes labelled ‘the fifth major’, and Zverev has had his say on whether he thinks it could become a Grand Slam tournament.
After losing in the second round this year, it appears that Zverev is not so keen on the idea and suggested that there is probably not the appetite for it in the US.
“Sometimes the desert is so difficult for some of us,” said the world number two. “You know, some players love it there. Some players hate it there. So I don’t necessarily see any world being it.
“I also, in my opinion, I think that tennis is probably not an American sport in a way. I think in America there is so many other sports that come above tennis, right?
“We talk about the NFL, we talk about the NBA, we talk about baseball, NHL, whatever. There’s, there’s a lot of other sports that are bigger than tennis in the United States. And in Europe, if you think about it, if you take all of Europe, probably tennis is number two or number three sport.”
Zverev will now look to return to form at the Miami Open, where he achieved his best result in 2018 by reaching the final.
The 27-year-old receives a bye to the second round as the top seed, and will play his opening match at on Saturday March 22 against either Benjamin Bonzi or British qualifier Jacob Fearnley.
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