Alexander Zverev remains on course to win his first Grand Slam title after reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Zverev is the third seed at the Australian Open, with the German currently ranked third in the world behind Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
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He has reached three Grand Slam finals in his career, including at the 2025 Australian Open, but lost all three.
Zverev reached the quarter-finals again in Melbourne, where he will face American sensation Learner Tien.
Photo by Mark Avellino/Anadolu via Getty Images
Alexander Zverev thinks tennis has improved since Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
Before this match, the German had the task of looking back on his first Grand Slam quarter-final in 2018.
When asked to compare the era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to this one, he replied: “Yes, I mean, back then it was a more complicated question because back then the Grand Slams were sort of organized.
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“In Australia, Novak was winning. Roland Garros was a kind of Rafa Grand Slam to lose. Wimbledon was always between Roger and Novak. There were perhaps not as many openings.
“That doesn’t mean tennis is worse now. I think tennis has gotten better. I think tennis has become faster, quicker, more physical.
“But I think yeah, the players kind of thought that way, you know, the first three years of the Grand Slams were going on and the only one to play for was kind of a US Open, maybe a little bit.
“At the same time, in the last two years, the four major tournaments were held all the time in Sinner and Alcaraz. Maybe that will change this year.
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“I hope it changes this year, of course. But it’s just different to compare and think about it. I think, I mean, I talked about it a lot last year.
“I think the surfaces have become a lot more similar to each other, where, you know, anyone can beat anyone on any surface, whereas back then that wasn’t the case.
“Yeah, I don’t know. We’ll see how the next few years go. I think the last two years have shown us that Carlos and Jannik are dominant. Maybe that will change.”
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images for the Laver Cup
What is the story of Alexander Zverev in the Grand Slam final?
It has indeed been a period of dominance for Sinner and Alcaraz in recent years, with the duo each winning four of the last eight Grand Slam tournaments.
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Zverev came close to breaking that trend twice, losing the 2024 French Open final to the latter before this Melbourne heartbreak to the former.
Their dominance comes hot on the heels of similar success for the Big Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
Once again, Zverev came close to sharing this success, but he lost the 2020 US Open final to Dominic Thiem.
He now has a great chance to right that wrong, but young ATP star Tien just knocked out Daniil Medvedev for the second year in a row.
Tien had a five-set win over the Russian veteran this time last year, but just beat him 6-4, 6-0, 6-3.
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