00:00Hi Alexander, congratulations for your win. Just a curiosity, after the match you go always
00:09to practice. Why? You are not enough tired that the match are light?
00:14No, it's not about that. I answered that yesterday. For me it's about improving a few things.
00:23I feel like Yannick and Carlos, they are doing a few things better than me at the moment.
00:30I want to improve. I want to improve not for tomorrow, not for today or because of the
00:37matches I played here. I want to generally improve for next year as well. That's the
00:44reason I do take this as a lot of practice here this weekend. I want to improve my game
00:52for next year as well.
00:54Sascha, when you say Yannick and Carlos are doing things better than you, what are you
01:04most concerned about? Which aspects do you feel you've really got to hone in on?
01:11Concerned? I don't know. I feel like they are so aggressive. I think tennis is going
01:18towards that direction. I think when they get an easy ball, when they are in an attacking
01:26position, 90% of the time the point is over, whether it's a winner or an unforced error.
01:31That's how hard they hit the ball. That's how aggressive they are. I think in that aspect
01:37I can improve. That's what I'm trying to do.
01:40Sascha, you're not bound to meet any of them anytime soon on the tour. Are you a little
01:46concerned that perhaps you're putting too much pressure on yourself with this very intense
01:51practice schedule?
01:53No.
01:54No?
01:55No. I think in tennis you always have to improve. If you're standing still you're going to
02:01go backwards because the other players are also improving. Yannick has improved a lot
02:05this year. There are some things that Carlos has improved as well. I think Novak over the
02:10past 15, 20 years has improved every single year. If you ask him whether he's a better
02:17tennis player last year, let's say 2023, or 2022 even, or 10 years ago when he was younger,
02:28I think he would say that he's a better tennis player now. I think that's because everybody
02:35tries to improve. If you're not improving you're standing still. I want to achieve my
02:42biggest goal still. For that I know I have to get better because for now it has not been
02:48good enough.
02:49Hi Sascha. The match is not over but in case Hugo Ember wins the game, can you say a few
02:55words about him, the player he is? What would it be for you to play him again after the
03:01great match you played last year together?
03:04He's an aggressive player. He's somebody who goes for his shots for sure. But as you said,
03:10the match is not over yet. For me, Karen has been playing great tennis the last few weeks
03:14so we have to first see who's going to be the winner of that match.
03:19You're going to be number two in the world next week. Does it have a special meaning?
03:25It's nice for sure. It's nice to be back at the highest position that I've been so far.
03:32Of course I want to get higher but for me still Yannick has the best year this season
03:39for sure. And then Carlos had the second best year. He won two Grand Slams. I know that
03:44I'm ahead of him in the rankings maybe but for me he won Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
03:51Those are two massive titles so they're still the two best players in the world in my opinion
03:56at the moment.
03:58I guess it's hard to compare but how would you assess your level now compared to the
04:04player you were just before your major injury two years ago? Is it the best version of Sacha
04:09Zverev today? And are you surprised to have been back so fast at the top?
04:15I mean I hope so. I hope it's the best version. And that period, I feel like in 2021 there
04:22was maybe a little bit of a change coming up. A little bit. Because the big titles,
04:29especially at the end of the year in 2021, were kind of shared between Novak, Daniel
04:34and myself. Novak won Wimbledon, Daniel won the US Open, I won the Olympics and the World
04:39Tour Final. So there was a period where it kind of was moving towards the direction of
04:43maybe a little bit of a change. And then in 2022 I feel like I was going a very good direction
04:50at Roland Garros. I was going hopefully to achieve my dream of winning Roland Garros.
04:57I was number two in the world. I was very close to becoming world number one as well.
05:01So it was kind of going in that direction. And then obviously there was a two year stop
05:06to that process. There was two years where I was not competitive for Grand Slams, not
05:12competitive for world number one and those kind of things. So I'm happy to be back where
05:17I am for sure. Because there was never a guarantee that I would be back at this level. So for
05:23sure for me it's a great satisfaction to be back. But again, I want to improve and I want
05:28to go even higher.
05:31There's a lot of talk to you about improving and adding to your game. If you had to look
05:39at it percentage wise, how much more percentage wise do you think you can improve? And as
05:47part of that, do you still set goals for yourself on, let's say on an annual basis?
05:57For me, my biggest goal right now is to improve the things that I think I'm worse than the
06:02other guys at. That is my goal until the Australian Open. That's why, yes, I'm in the final here.
06:07I'm extremely happy about that. I'm extremely happy with how I'm playing as well. But again,
06:15this is not my main focus right now. Of course, I'm in the Masters 1000 final. It's a huge
06:21thing for me. It's big. It's big for any player. It's a privilege to be in these kind of situations.
06:26But me and my team, me and my coaching staff and me and my physical trainer, we have set
06:31a goal that we want to improve on things until, you know, for next season. This is our main
06:39focus. This is our vision that we want to do. That for me is the only goal that I have
06:45at the moment.
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