"I was nervous, I was irritable - I knew once Sinner and Djokovic lost, it was now or never": Alexander Zverev calls Roland Garros win 'one of the worst weeks' of his life

Alexander Zverev took down Valentin Royer yesterday to reach the third round at Wimbledon and the German admitted that it was one of his worst weeks of his life when he won Roland Garros.

As well as that, he doesn't consider himself one of the favourites for the title at Wimbledon; he said that he sees himself only as a third favourite. He won 6-1, 6-3, 7-6.

He spoke to Prime Video afterwards and said that it was slightly easier than Alexander Blockx in that he knew he wasn't going to be getting a player who is on the up and has a wild game that is a bit more tougher to figure out.

"There wasn't really a game plan. No major tactical approach. But I think I played a better match today than I did in the first round. It was also a completely different opponent. He isn't serving at 140 mph, so it's a bit easier to play against him. You get into more rallies and find your rhythm. I felt like we had a lot more exchanges today, even on his serve. I think that also gives you a bit more confidence. Overall, I thought the second round was better than the first," said Zverev to Prime Video.

He also stopped short of calling it his best game and that he lost concentration during the tie which he said proved a little bit more problematic but for a second round clash, he saw it as a good win.

"No, I wouldn't say it was my best. But it was good. I felt good out there. It was a very good match. I played well from the baseline and I thought I returned well too. Then I lost concentration for a little while, which can happen. I've had a really nice summer, but it's also been a long one. I've played a lot of tennis, so mentally you're maybe a little more tired than you are physically. Those lapses in concentration can happen. Hopefully they won't happen in the next rounds. But for a second-round match, I thought it was perfectly OK."

He touched upon that Roland Garros triumph and called it one of the worst weeks of his life simply because he knew of the pressure that surrounded him. He said that he isn't a robot and knew of the external pressures so it got to him.

"I have to say, before I won it, it was one of the worst weeks of my life. I had so much stress inside me. I was nervous, I was irritable, because I knew that once Sinner lost and Djokovic lost, it was now or never. Suddenly I became the overwhelming favourite. That had never happened to me at a Grand Slam before. That was stressful. Everyone kept talking to me about it. I handled it pretty well until the final. Then, in the final, the nerves definitely showed. I probably played a little worse than I had in the previous matches because I was more nervous. But that's human. I'm not a robot. In the end, I won. That's all that matters. Honestly, nothing else really interests me."

But he also doesn't see himself as the favourite and that he has barely scratched the surface especially when it comes to playing players in the higher echelons of the rankings at this Grand Slam and he hasn't done since 2016 when he faced Berdych so he can't call himself thus.

"I'm not the favourite here. Favourite? In my eyes, I'm maybe third on the list. The overwhelming favourite is Sinner. Then I'd say Novak is second because he's won this tournament seven or eight times, and that counts for a lot on grass. Then maybe me.

"Someone asked me in the press conference today how I saw myself because I'm the only Grand Slam champion in my half of the draw. But I've only ever played one top-10 player here in my life, and that was Tomáš Berdych in 2016. Since then I've never played another top-10 player here because I've never made it that far. Statistics are nice, but I still have to win my own matches and play good tennis. If I do that, then OK, we can start talking about it. But we're only in the third round. There's still a long way to go."