Federer And Nadal Not The Only Great Players On Tour, Zverev Says

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal maybe dominating the men’s game at the moment, but they are not the only great players on the ATP Tour at the moment, according to world number three Alexander Zverev.

The German won his second title of the 2018 season when he beat Dominic Thiem to win the Mutua Madrid Open – his third Masters Series title despite being just 21-years-old. He also made the final of the Miami Open losing to John Isner.

Zverev is considered to be among the next generation of players coming through to take over the men’s game and he has proven himself by beating the likes of Federer and Novak Djokovic in the last 12 months. But the German wants to be better than Nadal and Federer before they retire than taking over from the current era’s big guns.

Despite the emergence of the younger generation, the world’s top two ranked players are the two veterans – Federer and Nadal – with the both of them having won a combined 17 tournaments in the last 16 months. The duo also holds all the Grand Slam titles between them at the moment.

The Swiss ace is widely considered the greatest ever to play the game, while the Spaniard comes a close second and has the moniker the "King of Clay" owing to his 56 singles titles on the surface which include 10 or more titles at the French Open, Monte Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open.

However, despite their recent dominance, Zverev believes there are a number of great players on tour at the moment in the old guard and the upcoming younger generation. The likes of Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis have proven they can challenge the top guys.

“We have so many great players at the moment - young and older generation,” Zverev told ATP World Tour when discussing the Masters winners of 2018, as quoted by the Daily Express. “So the game is at the absolute best and obviously Roger and Rafael are dominating, but there are other guys playing unbelievable tennis.”

Zverev also spoke about the importance of his first Masters Series title which came at the Italian Open in 2017 when he beat Djokovic in the summit clash after Nadal had fallen to Thiem in the quarter-finals.

The event in Rome is underway this week with the world number three set to begin his title defense on Wednesday against Matteo Berrettini. He is hoping he can continue his form on clay and add to the two titles he has already won this season.

“It was unbelievably important - I didn’t expect to win my first Masters title here,” Zverev said. “The week I had here was unreal - I couldn’t believe it.”

“It has been a great year since that and I’m hoping to continue the tennis I’ve been playing throughout the clay court season and see how far I can go,” he added.