The German tennis player stopped the press conference to give a warning to the reporter who asked the question
Zverev gets angry with a journalist
Alexander Zverev (N°3) is already in the third round of Roland Garros after beating Argentine Sebastián Báez (N°36) by 2-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 and 7-5, in a match where the mental issue played a big role in the victory of the German, who was two sets down but never gave up the duel.
In this sense, the questions of the journalists circulated in the subsequent press conference, and it was in one of them when the 25-year-old tennis player became furious against one of them when see that, after asking him a question, he ignored the situation and started using the mobile phone while he answered.
“The conditions were very different from the other day and it was harder for me to get into the match”, Sascha began by explaining.
Zverev reversed the result and beat the young Argentine in Paris (Reuters )
“I knew I had to keep fighting until I found the way,especially in the second set. I mean, I knew I wasn’t going to win but I had to pick up my pace in that set…” he replied before pausing,
“Could you at least watch me while I answer? because you have also asked the question and you are on your mobile”, the German reproached the journalist who seems to have apologized a few seconds later, seeing the astonished and disappointed face of the tennis player.
“He played an excellent match”, Zverev declared later about his rival 21 years oldand admitted about himself that he could not “start the match worse”, although “I knew I had to find a way to beat him and I started doing it from the second set”.
He Philippe Chatrier’s audience and Zverev himself fired the Argentine with a standing ovation, as a gesture of the great tennis that Báez had shown, who at least will take that as a consolation for his first visit to Paris.
Baez could not with number three in the ATP ranking (Reuters)
Despite the defeat, Báez showed that he is in great form (he was a quarter-finalist in Lyon last week, losing to subsequent champion, Britain’s Cameron Norrie) : “I had several chances in the fifth set, but Zverev is a great player and in difficult moments he played better than me.”
“I have to learn a lot to that in the future I can win this type of match. The defeat is hard, but sometimes it is positive to be able to learn and improve for the future”, he added.
Semi-finalist last year on clay in Paris, the tennis player The German, meanwhile, will face the American Brandon Nakashima (N.75) in the third round.