“It was very, very cold”: Alexander Zverev blames weather for French Open quarterfinal defeat to Novak Djokovic

Germany’s Alexander Zverev has highlighted one reason which played a big role in his defeat in the French Open quarterfinal. The 28-year-old’s journey in the second Grand Slam of the year came to an end on Wednesday as he lost to the former world number one Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic in the last-eight clash with a score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

Talking after the match, Zverev highlighted that the weather made it tough for him to find a solution against arguably the greatest player of all time. The three-time Grand Slam runner-up stated that Djokovic managed to ‘neutralise’ his serve, which made it tougher for him to dominate the proceedings.

“I think it was also a bit the conditions,” said Zverev. “It was very, very cold. So my serve speed was not very high. I think when the sun completely went down, it was difficult for me to get through the court a little bit. “It was difficult for me to find kind of ways to be dominant in the rally because my serve was neutralized very well by him. Then also, I felt like my groundstrokes, every time I tried to be aggressive, I was not really doing much. It was difficult for me to find a solution in the cold conditions.”

Zverev then went on to discuss how impressive Djokovic has been on the court in recent years, despite turning 38. The reigning world number three stated that in his opinion, the 24-time Grand Slam winner deserves more respect than he is getting because of the emergence of young stars.

“Yeah I think at the moment he’s a bit underrated to be honest,” he said. “Funny that you say that. I think a lot of people count him out already. This year he’s had a win over Alcaraz at the Australian Open and a win over me at the French Open. Forget the age, I think for any player those are pretty good results. Of course I’d have to ask him how he feels physically and how he will recover… if he’ll be 100% for the next match, because I do think it was quite a physical match for both of us. But he’s still beating the best of the best. I think everyone needs to respect that.”