MADRID: Germany’s Alexander Zverev has insisted that the late-night finishes at the Madrid Open will have no impact on his performance in the tournament.
The second seed kick-started his campaign with straight sets win over Evgeny Donskoy on Wednesday, which didn’t end until after midnight. He followed up that victory with a 6-4, 6-2, dismissal of Leonardo Mayer. Dropping only three points behind his first serve and breaking his opponent three times in total.
“It was good. I held the ball well from the start until the finish.” Zverev told Ubitennis. “I mean, he played two very good matches. Especially yesterday, defeating Verdasco 2-1 here in Madrid in his home town, I think was special for him.
“I had to be able to play good tennis to achieve a score like that.”
There were no signs of the previous night’s match impacting on his performance against world No.45 Mayer. Who has won two ATP titles on the clay so far in his career. Zverev later explained that he finds himself is a fortunate situation when it comes to his own sleeping patterns.
“For me, luckily I am somebody who can sleep very long into the day.” He explained. “I went to bed around three (Thursday morning), but I woke up around one (Thursday afternoon). For me, I still got my ten hours of sleep. That’s the most important for me. I obviously got the whole day push back a little bit, but I felt good on the court.”
The Madrid Open schedules their final match on the premier court to take place no earlier than 21:30 local time. A stark contrast to an event such as Wimbledon. Which has an agreement with the local council to stop play after 23:00, despite having a roof on their centre court.
Zverev is set for another late-night clash in the quarter-finals when he takes on John Isner. A player he lost to in the final of the Miami Open back in March. Asked if he would like Madrid to apply a similar policy to that of Wimbledon, the world No.3 dismissed the idea.
“Playing late is not an issue.” He insisted.
“I know John (Isner) very well. It’s never going to be an easy match. It is the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000.” He added.
Zverev leads his American rival 3-1 in their head-to-head. They will clash on the Manolo Santana Court at roughly 21:30 local time on Friday.
