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Alexander Zverev bluntly stated that the news of his upcoming trial in Germany didn't have any impact on his concentration at the Australian Open because "a person with a semi-decent IQ understands" why he is being accused of physical abuse by his ex-girlfriend.
At the start of the Australian Open, the news came out of Germany that in May, Zverev would stand trial on the allegations of physical abuse. In October, a court in Berlin issued a penalty order against Zverev and handed him a €450k fine after the mother of his child, Brenda Patea, accused the German of physically abusing her in 2020.
At the time, Zverev rejected the court's ruling and said he would contest it and go to trial. In mid-January, it was revealed that Zverev's trial would start on May 31st.
Although the trial news drew negative attention to Zverev, the German still managed to make the Australian Open semifinal. On Friday, Zverev missed out on a great chance to reach his first Australian Open final after Daniil Medvedev came back from two sets down to beat the German 5-7 3-6 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) 6-3.
"No, because I have said it before: Anyone who has a semi-decent IQ level understands what's going on. I hope that most of you guys do. I'm fine with it," Zverev said when asked if his concentration at the Australian Open was impacted by the trial news.
What Zverev blamed for his loss against Medvedev?
After the opening two sets, Zverev appeared to be up all over Medvedev. But then, Medvedev started to slowly work his way back into the match.
After breaking Medvedev five times through the first two sets, Zverev didn't have a single break point opportunity in the third set. Instead, Zverev faced three break points but was able to save them as the third set went into a tie-break. In the third-set tie-break, Zverev and Medvedev were tied to four points apiece before the Russian won the next three points to force a fourth set.
The fourth set also went into a tie-break after the lone break points of the set were seen in the eighth game - when Zverev saved two break points. In the fourth-set tie-break, Zverev was two points away from clinching a win as he was 5-4 up and had two serves before blowing it all up and losing the next three points.
After sending the match into a decider, Medvedev completed his comeback after breaking Zverev in the fifth and ninth games of the fifth set.
In his post-match press conference, Zverev revealed that he started to lose energy late in the second set and blamed illness for that.
"End of the second set I started to lose energy. I started to not feel, you know, so fresh anymore," Zverev revealed.
"I mean, I am a bit sick. I got a bit sick after the Alcaraz match with a bit of fever and stuff like that, so that obviously didn't help the recovery, and I did play quite a lot.
"So, yeah, just loss of energy a little bit in the end of the second set, and against him, it's impossible to play when you're not 100% physically, because he's literally someone that really doesn't give you anything."
Zverev 'frustrated' over not being at 100% physically
Zverev, who will be turning 27 in April, fell to a 1-6 record in his Grand Slam semifinals following a loss to Medvedev. For Zverev, who has been trying to win a Grand Slam for several years now, it was yet another strong and promising Slam run that ended in a heartbreaking way.
After his latest Grand Slam semifinal loss, Zverev said the thing that made him the most frustrated was not being at his best physically. Also, Zverev suggested that if he was 100% physically and it only came down to tennis, he would have won against Medvedev.
"Yeah, frustrating. But for me it's more frustrating that I didn't feel 100% physically. That was more frustrating to me. It kind of took the chance away. I was playing well enough, you know, I was playing well enough throughout the whole Australian trip, in a way. I was playing very, very good tennis the whole Australian trip," Zverev explained.
"You know, kind of I lost it because of a physical state, not because of tennis. That is, for me, disappointing. That's probably the first time or one of the first times in my career that that has happened.
"But the other thing is I can be also proud of myself because I did everything I could. I did all the work in the offseason, did all the work here in Australia. I was focused, I was concentrated, but things happened out of my control, in a way. It's not my last chance hopefully."
Zverev's next chance at winning a Grand Slam will be the French Open, where he has been a semifinalist in each of the last three seasons.