Alexander Zverev suffered another abject showing at the Italian Open, crashing out to Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-final to leave him with things to fix before the French Open gets underway.
Zverev was a finalist at the French Open last year but found a formidable Carlos Alcaraz on the other side of the net in the Roland Garros match-up.
It’s been a somewhat strange 2025 for Zverev so far, with a sizeable hangover after losing a third Grand Slam final to Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open.
Zverev suffered a number of poor tournaments after losing in Melbourne and lost his second-place ranking on the ATP Tour, with Alcaraz overtaking him.
After losing to Musetti in Rome, Zverev launched an attack on the balls and Rennae Stubbs isn’t happy with his comments.
Rennae Stubbs launches stinging attack on Alexander Zverev
It’s fair to say that Stubbs has been left perplexed by Zverev making excuses about his defeat to Musetti at the quarter-final stage last week.
The German performer was less than impressed with the balls and chose to use those as an excuse for his defeat to the Italian player in the last eight.
Stubbs thinks it’s time for Zverev to sort his act out and quit making lame excuses, suggesting it’s robbing him of a chance to truly become one of the game’s greats.
She said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast: “No man, your forehand – you are a bigger pusher (than Musetti) on that shot. And you hate playing Musetti because he slices to your forehand and you are 17 feet tall. You have the worst grip. You can’t get underneath it and you are a p—y when you don’t go for it.
“That is why you are never going to be a great player. I mean, you are a great player, but you are never going to win a Grand Slam if you’re going to complain about the balls.
“When was the last time Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic complained about the balls? Like what?”
What Alexander Zverev said about the balls at the Italian Open
Musetti has found some form going into the French Open and on clay, he perhaps can’t be discounted for a decent run at the tournament.
However, the defeat does leave more questions than answers for Zverev and he will be desperate to finally get over the line when it comes to a Grand Slam.
Speaking about the balls in Rome, he said: “The balls were a joke today. Generally speaking, this is a subject we’ve had over the last three, four years now. Players are talking about it all the time.
“They say we play with the same ball in Monaco, Munich, Madrid. Then, we come here and the ball is totally different. The ball is very, very big. It’s very difficult to hit winners here. It’s just how it is these days.”
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