Alexander Zverev's season ends in anti-climax after ATP Finals defeat to Jack Sock
"Yeah, I choked. It's quite easy"
Friday 17 November 2017 01:20, UK
Alexander Zverev admitted he "choked" as he went down in a see-saw encounter against American Jack Sock at the ATP Finals on Thursday.
The German lost a see-saw encounter 6-4 1-6 6-4 to Sock who secured a semi-final spot against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
The American No 1 was well on top as he took the first set against third-ranked Zverev, but a major shift in momentum saw the 20-year-old run away with the second.
Zverev took an early break in the third, yet Sock took the next four games, only to be pegged back to 4-4, before an eighth double fault from Zverev offered up match point and a forehand into the tramlines saw the Nebraska native through.
For all those Zverev fans there are a few question marks creeping in on that forehand side and the mentality. When he is not expected to win he frees up. When he is expected to win he tightens up a little bit. But he is still doing brilliant for a 20-year-old. It is going to take a little longer than most people think for him to get to the top of men's tennis.
Zverev has emerged as one of the brightest young stars on the ATP tour, winning five tournaments and reaching world No 3, but it all ended in anti-climax. He revealed in this post-match press conference that had only himself to blame for the season-ending loss.
"Yeah, I choked. It's quite easy. Won the second set 6-1, then I was down 1-4 within 10 minutes where I didn't put many balls in the court," he said.
"When I got back at 4-5, that's one of the worst games I think I played all year. So, yeah, I just choked."
But Zverev says he has no intention of resting on his laurels in the close-season and is determined to "improve even more".
"It's been an awesome year. Still, the end of the year was absolute rubbish for me," he added. "If I would have played the whole year like I did, by the end of the year I don't think I would have finished top 50.
"Yeah, that's a bit unfortunate. But that's okay. I'm going to go on holidays now. I'm definitely going to enjoy that. Then I'm going to work hard in the off-season.
"I'm going to do three weeks of physical again, then start tennis, just do all the basic stuff again."Try to get back to where I was beginning of the year, try to maybe improve even more."
The season-ending extravaganza ATP Finals ends another memorable year which will be covered via our website www.skysports.com/tennis with live blogs, reports, reaction and expert analysis as the season reaches its climax.
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