{"id":801028,"date":"2026-08-03T11:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/801028\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T11:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:27:11","slug":"zverev-laments-sinner-djokovic-withdrawals-at-nbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/801028\/","title":{"rendered":"Zverev laments Sinner, Djokovic withdrawals at NBO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev, of Germany, speaks to the media during the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Montreal, on Sunday.Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev has faced Jannik Sinner five times in the semi-finals or finals of tournaments this season, losing on each occasion.<\/p>\n

Despite that, the German star wishes the world No. 1 hadn\u2019t withdrawn from the National Bank Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you want to be competing against the best, especially before the U.S. Open,\u201d Zverev said at a news conference Sunday at IGA Stadium. \u201cI understand it, though. I mean, we had a thought also of maybe skipping Montreal this year, but then we decided to play it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s not a positive that I keep losing to the same guy, or I have lost to the same guy multiple times, but I think it definitely shows that we were probably the two most stable players on tour this year, and that\u2019s a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zverev, ranked No. 2 in the world and the top seed in Montreal, notably lost to Sinner in the Madrid final and most recently at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old said he quickly moved past the defeat to Sinner at the grass-court Grand Slam, although he would have liked to extend the match by forcing a deciding set.<\/p>\n

Zverev also realized after his French Open triumph in June that winning his first Grand Slam title did not really change his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a satisfaction, for sure. I mean, I\u2019ve waited for that Grand Slam title a very long time, in a way, and, of course, I\u2019m very happy that it came,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the work continues since we have three Masters tournaments here in North America, and that\u2019s what the focus is on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zverev said it was important for him to play a lot of matches to feel comfortable on court. As a result, he took only one week off after Wimbledon before returning to training.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Italy’s Jannik Sinner (left) holds the gentlemen’s singles trophy after topping Germany’s Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon last month in London.HENRY NICHOLLS\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

He added, however, that every player has their own approach, and he understands why Sinner and veteran Novak Djokovic decided to skip the Montreal tournament.<\/p>\n

Zverev also did not appear particularly interested in discussing ways to encourage all players to participate in Masters 1000 events.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, if everything goes back to the old [way] and we would play one-week Masters events, yeah, we can talk about it,\u201d he said. \u201dBut if you\u2019re forcing us to be away for two and a half, three weeks during Grand Slams and the same then goes for Masters events, you can\u2019t force us to play. Sorry, that\u2019s nonsense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, if you play all nine Masters, you get a bonus at the end of the year. So there is that to it as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think Novak will care if he gets a bigger bonus?\u201d he added. \u201cI think the guy has \u2013 I mean, if I would have to guess, the guy is north of 400-million in his bank account, and so I\u2019m not sure he would care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zverev is therefore not a big fan of 12-day Masters events, a format the National Bank Open adopted last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to play more 500 events, 250 events when the Masters were shorter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Zverev hopes the Montreal tournament, which he won in 2017, will serve as a springboard for his hard-court season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think maybe I\u2019ll play my best tennis here,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the result of me playing here, I think I\u2019ll play better in Cincinnati and then hopefully my best tennis in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Alexander Zverev, of Germany, speaks to the media during the National Bank Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,99,2415,74,428,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":["post-801028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-tennis","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}