{"id":552697,"date":"2026-04-27T04:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552697\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T04:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:25:14","slug":"alexander-zverev-stance-clear-on-carlos-alcaraz-french-open-withdrawal-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552697\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev stance clear on Carlos Alcaraz French Open withdrawal | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alcaraz, 22, is also missing the Madrid Open<\/a> and Italian Open and omitted a timeframe from his return, instead insisting that his comeback to the court will depend on how quickly his wrist will heal. With his absence in Paris, world number one Jannik Sinner has become quite the overwhelming favourite to achieve the Career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

Zverev – who is regarded by many as the greatest men’s player to never win a major – agreed that his chances of winning the tournament has increased with Alcaraz’s absence when questioned but insisted he wants everyone to be available when competing for a title.<\/p>\n

He replied: “Yes, but that\u2019s the wrong way to look at it. To win a Grand Slam, you have to beat the best in the world. In recent months, Jannik Sinner<\/a> has been the best player and still is, so he\u2019s the big favourite. But I don\u2019t want anyone to be absent. I\u2019ll compete the same way and try to win, but it\u2019s better when everyone is there.”<\/p>\n

The German opened up about his sympathy for Alcaraz and the hole he creates when not in action, as he said: “It\u2019s sad, sad for tennis. But as he said himself, he\u2019s still very young and has a long career ahead, so that has to be his priority. It\u2019s never good when top players miss big tournaments. We need him, tennis is more exciting when he\u2019s playing. Sometimes people say players are happy when others are out, but that\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve been in that situation myself \u2013 injured and unable to play big events \u2013 and it\u2019s not a good feeling. I wish him a very speedy recovery. Hopefully he\u2019ll be back sooner than expected and can still think about Roland Garros. If not, I hope to see him fully fit for the grass-court season.”<\/p>\n

Discussing his win over the Argentine ace, Zverev said: “There were ups and downs. The good moments were very high \u2013 like the first set, which was almost perfect \u2013 and the bad ones were quite low, like the start of the second set.<\/p>\n

“I lost a bit of concentration, but there are positives. I felt like I was serving extremely well, especially in the first set. In the end, I found my rhythm again and won in three sets, which is what matters most.”<\/p>\n

Zverev is set to face Frenchman Terence Atmane in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alcaraz, 22, is also missing the Madrid Open and Italian Open and omitted a timeframe from his return,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[7570,870,7384,101,118,12700,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-552697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-alexander-zverev","9":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","10":"tag-french-open","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-tennis-section","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}