Andrea Petkovic: Alexander Zverev Has a Better Chance at Olympics Over Grand Slam

Former Top 10 player Andrea Petkovic, of Germany, says her compatriot Alexander Zverev is more likely to win an Olympic medal rather than a Grand Slam title, in an interview to Sport Bild.

The 32 year old Petkovic, who underwent surgery recently, commented, "I trust him to win an Olympic medal rather than a Grand Slam victory. Because at the Olympics, you need to win only two sets to win. It still takes time to get used to the best-of-five format of the Grand Slams."

Zverev, who is 22 years old, reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam event for the first time in Melbourne at the Australian Open this year, a result which impressed Petkovic." At the Australian Open, he convinced me that he really has this champions gene in him."

Petkovic was also of the view that best-of-five sets at the Slams should be abolished. "I would abolish best-of-five. These are mega exciting for the real tennis fans and big theater. But you cannot get a generation that grows up with two-minute YouTube clips to watch five-hour long tennis matches."

The Olympics take place in Tokyo later this year after the Wimbledon Championships. This will be the first time that Zverev will be participating at the Olympics. Petkovic and Zverev had partnered together at the Hopman Cup in Perth in 2017.

Zverev has won the season-ending 2018 ATP Finals in London, which had made him the youngest winner at the year-end championship in a decade. He has won 11 ATP singles titles and 2 ATP doubles titles in his career. He is also a former world No. 1 junior, and won the junior Grand Slam singles title at the 2014 Australian Open. The German is currently ranked No. 7 in the world as per the latest ATP rankings, but has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world rankings in the past.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/38Zp2HQ