"It was ridiculously dark before the rain delay": Zverev laments conditions in Berrettini loss, but thinks Italian ace could win Wimbledon

Germany’s Alexander Zverev has lamented the playing conditions during his third-round defeat at Wimbledon 2023.

The 26-year-old was beaten by Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in the round of 32 clash on Saturday with a score of 6-3, 7-6, 7-6.

The game was affected by rain and Zverev, while talking about it to the media after the match, stated that it was difficult to play in such conditions.

"Well, I think both of us played much better after the break,” he said. “Because it was ridiculously dark before the rain delay. We both were saying that to the umpire, but their plan wasn't to play us till 8:30. I don't know how they wanted to play us more than one hour still."

Zverev went on to heap praise on Berrettini, who according to him has the ability to go all the way this year.

“I told him that he can win the tournament if he plays like this,” said the Hamburg-born. “In my opinion. I mean, of course there is other players that are great. He's playing Alcaraz next. I think he's a great player as well. But if he plays like this, to be honest, he has chances against anybody.”

Talking about his own performance, the 2020 US Open final stated that he was satisfied with his performance in a match that ‘could’ve gone both ways’.

“I think from my end. It wasn't great,” he said. “I think the break that I got in the first set was, yeah, it was kind of unforced in a way. Other than that, I think it was a very, very decent match. I lost in three very tight sets. I just looked at the stats. I think I lost only three points, lost three more points than him in the whole match. That just shows that it could have gone both ways, but today in important moments he played better."