Alexander Zverev said he is beginning \u2060to see the benefits of a more aggressive playing style that he introduced this year \u200cin his quest for a Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n
The towering German has \u200ca massive serve but in the biggest moments \u200cat major tournaments would often opt to play it \u200csafe and, in the process, present his opponent \u200cwith a chance to pounce.<\/p>\n
Now, the 28-year-old is prepared to take risks in pursuit of his elusive first major \u200ctitle, adding that he is “willing to \u2060pay the price” for \u200cany losses incurred as he adapts.<\/p>\n
“It’s exciting, but it \u200bwill take time,” he told reporters after his 7-6 (2) 5-7 6-4<\/a> third-round win over American \u200bBrandon Nakashima<\/a> at Indian Wells on Sunday.<\/p>\n “I’m still trying to win matches here, so sometimes I will \u2060go back to \u200bmy old self.<\/p>\n “But I think in important moments like today in the tiebreak, I won the tiebreak myself. I won the tiebreak by playing aggressive tennis, \u200cand that’s something to look forward to and to be excited about.”<\/p>\n He said the new playing style didn’t work out for him when he suffered a surprising loss to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic<\/a> in Acapulco late last month, but he remains resolute in his efforts.<\/p>\n Zverev<\/a>, a seven-time Masters 1000 champion, showcased tremendous fighting spirit during a five-hour, 27-minute Australian Open \u200csemi-final against eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n Although \u200bhe has never triumphed at Indian Wells, he \u200cexpressed confidence in the hardened, faster hard courts in the California desert.<\/p>\n “I still think I can do well here,” he said.<\/p>\n Zverev will face American Frances \u2060Tiafoe<\/a> after he downed Flavio Colbolli<\/a> 6-1, 6-2<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev said he is beginning \u2060to see the benefits of a more aggressive playing style that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-530284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}