Alexander Zverev euphoric after claiming Olympic gold, saying, ‘this is an incredible feeling’
“This is so much bigger than anything else in sports, especially in tennis,” an elated Alexander Zverev declared after winning the gold medal in the singles at the Tokyo Olympics.
The world No 5 on Sunday became the first German man to win an Olympic gold medal after brushing aside Karen Khachanov from ROC 6-3, 6-1 in a lopsided final.
Auf geht’s #GER
The moment @AlexZverev clinched gold 🥇#Tokyo2020 | #Tennis | #Olympics pic.twitter.com/VIGp1u1cqE
— ITF (@ITFTennis) August 1, 2021
“This is so much bigger than anything else in sports, especially in tennis – this is an incredible feeling me for me right now,” Zverev told ITF Tennis.
“There is nothing better than this. You are not only playing for yourself, you are playing for your country, and the Olympics are the biggest sporting event in the world. The feeling I have now, and will have, nothing will be better.”
Zverev reached the final on the back of an incredible comeback against world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-final as he came from 1-6, 2-3 deficit to win in three sets.
He followed it up with a two-set win over Khachanov to win one of the biggest titles of his career.
“Those four sets were pretty decent,” joked the fourth seed.
“I could always hit the ball quite hard – this week it was going more into the court than not, I guess,” he said, adding: “All the tennis experts and ex-players, they always saw other guys being better than me. I now have 16 tournaments wins, four Masters 1000 wins, the ATP Finals, and a gold medal.”
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