Alexander Zverev: Nobody expected Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to crash out
The young guys have put their hands up at the season-ending ATP Finals with Alexander Zverev saying very few people would have predicted that Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic would fail to make the semi-finals.
Nadal and Djokovic have dominated the Grand Slams this year as they shared the four trophies between them and also finished one and two in the rankings with the Spaniard taking the year-end No 1 spot.
The third member of the Big Three, Roger Federer, is third in the rankings.
However, the next generation has dominated at The O2 as both Nadal and Djokovic failed to make it out of their respective groups while the 38-year-old Federer advanced.
The Swiss will face 21-year-old Stefanos Tsitispas in the semi-final while Zverev will be up against Dominic Thiem.
“The young guys have been playing much better tennis than they were maybe last year,” defending champion Zverev said. “I think the biggest surprise is actually that Novak is out of the tournament, because I think for him, this court, the conditions is the best fit for his game.
“The other thing is obviously Rafa. Nobody expected him to be out from our group. Our group was very, very difficult, and for me and Stefanos to qualify, I don’t think a lot of people would have picked [us], especially probably me with the year I had. But we played good tennis over the last five days, so that helped us.
“The tournament is still not over. It’s going to be interesting to see who will be the winner. Maybe we’ll have the oldest winner of all-time. Maybe it’s going to be one of the new guys, young guys. Maybe we’ll have a first-time winner. We’ll see how it goes.
“I hope it will be a back-to-back for me.”
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