Alexander Zverev has ‘a hard time dealing with the pressure of playing in Germany’
Alexander Zverev had a birthday to forget in Munich as he was dumped out of BMW Open by Christopher O’Connell and he admitted afterwards that the pressure of playing in front of his home crowd in Germany once again got to him.
The former world No 2 is a two-time winner of the ATP 250 clay-court tournament as he lifted back-to-back trophies in 2017 and 2018, but he then suffered consecutive quarter-final exits while last year he lost in the second round.
And he has once again failed to make it to the business end of the event this year as he suffered a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 defeat at the hands of O’Connell in the second round on Thursday.
The weather didn’t help with Zverev wearing leggings and a second skin and afterwards he admitted it was “so cold, the sand is damp, these are no conditions for me”. O’Connell played in shorts as he was “not prepared to play in this weather”, adding “this is the coldest weather I have played in”.
But the weather didn’t distract from a great performance from the Australian as he broke in game four only for Zverev to hit back immediately. However, the world No 82 comfortably claimed the tie-breaker.
The second set had a similar theme as O’Connell broke first with Zverev hitting back, but a second break in game nine set up the win for the Australian.
For Zverev it is back to the drawing board as the third seed conceded during the post-match press conference that internal pressure once again told.
“In the last few years I’ve had a hard time dealing with the pressure of playing in Germany,” he said. “I put the pressure on myself and I know how the last few years have gone here. I haven’t played well here since 2018.”
The 26-year-old added: “I play wonderfully in training, I haven’t lost more than two games and not a single set. But in the match it’s something completely different.”
Zverev has struggled in recent months as he lost in the fourth round of the Indian Wells Open, second round of the Miami Open and third round of the Monte Carlo Masters last week.
The good news for the German is that the Madrid Open is next on his calendar and the ATP Masters 1000 tournament has proven to be a happy hunting ground as last year he finished runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz while he won the title in 2021 and 2018.
