Alexander Zverev asks Jannik Sinner to skip French Open after ‘terrible match’ | Tennis | Sport

Alexander Zverev has jokingly asked Jannik Sinner and his team to take a week off during the French Open, so someone else has a chance to lift the title. Sinner made history at the Madrid Open on Sunday, becoming the first man to win five consecutive Masters 1000 tournaments after thrashing Zverev 6-1 6-2 in the final.

Two-time former champion Zverev openly admitted that he played a “terrible match” and apologised to the crowd for his performance. And the world No. 3 then suggested that he and the rest of the field had virtually “no chance” to beat Sinner unless he took a break.

“Hello everybody. First of all, super sorry for the final. Was not my best day, so yeah,” the second seed said during his runner-up speech. “Congratulations to Jannik, best player in the world by far at the moment, and really no chance for most of the people, for us, at the moment against you.

“Also, to your team, you guys are doing an incredible job every single week. I hope one week, or maybe the French Open, just have a break! Just don’t… No, but congratulations.”

Sinner has not lost a match since February, and he’s now faced Zverev seven times since October, winning all seven matches. But the German star believes that he would have lost to anybody in Sunday’s final, given how poorly he played.

“I mean, he’s very good, of course. But I think today I would have lost to anybody, to be very fair. I think today I played an awful tennis match,” Zverev explained.

“Well, to be honest, I think everybody’s struggling against him. He’s won the last five Masters events, so it’s not like I’m the only one losing to him. I’m just losing to him more because I get to him every single time and I lose to him. So it’s like that. Yeah, I mean, today doesn’t make sense to talk much about strategy, it was absolutely a terrible match by me. I don’t think there’s much strategy involved.”

Sinner has now won five straight Masters tournaments – Paris, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, and Madrid. At all five, he beat Zverev on his way to the title. The 24-year-old has played a lot of tennis since the start of March and still hasn’t lost his momentum, but Zverev isn’t surprised.

“Look, I don’t think it’s a surprise. He’s world No. 1. I think it’s not more, not the improving, I think he’s very stable. He doesn’t have dips, he doesn’t have phases where he goes down. I think that’s why he’s world No. 1. To me, that’s more spectacular, I think, keeping the level the whole time,” the world No. 3 explained.

While Sinner has shown that he’s miles ahead of his rivals, Zverev also believes that he, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are also in a group of their own. He added: “I think there’s a big gap between Sinner and everybody else right now. It’s quite simple.

“I think there’s a big gap between Sinner and everybody else. And I think there’s a big gap between Alcaraz, myself, maybe Novak, and everybody else. I think there’s two gaps right now.

“It’s difficult to say that there’s not a gap between Sinner and everybody else if he hasn’t lost a match in how many Masters events? Since Shanghai. He hasn’t lost a match in almost nine months. I think you have to admit that there’s a gap between him and everybody else, yeah.”

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