“Won’t say what it is”
After victory in Madrid: Zverev makes strange hints
Updated April 28, 2026 – 9:12 amReading time: 2 minutes
Alexander Zverev moved into the next round in Madrid. Afterwards, the tennis star complained about physical problems – but remained vague.
Tennis star Alexander Zverev made it to the round of 16 at the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid with a little effort and nerve. The 29-year-old from Hamburg won against the error-prone Terence Atmane (24) from France 6:3, 7:6 (7:2) after 1:37 hours of play. On Tuesday evening, Zverev will face Jakub Mensik from the Czech Republic, provided the German can play. After the game against Atmane, he complained about physical problems, without going into details.
Zverev explained that he had the physical problems in the second set. “I won’t say what it is. I played a very good match up to 6:3, 5:2. Let’s see what it is, because I feel like I can actually show good tennis.”
Against Atmane, Zverev initially presented himself much more confidently in the evening session than in the opener against the Argentinian Mariano Navone, whom he was only able to defeat after three sets. The 2021 Olympic champion made few mistakes and played extremely powerfully. Atmane, on the other hand, was only able to really challenge the top German player towards the end of the second set. When Zverev was already serving to win the match, the outsider suddenly managed his first break to make it 4:5 and then served his own serve with a lot of passion.
The world number 74 flourished; Zverev had to fight for the victory that was already believed to be certain. However, after a short phase of weakness and a short discussion with the chair referee, the world number three found the right answers and held his nerve in the tiebreak. On the other side of the net, it was Atmane who was now complaining loudly about his mistakes.
In Madrid, Zverev is in the round of 16 for the ninth time; he triumphed in the “Caja Magica” in 2018 and 2021. Before Zverev, only Jannik Sinner had reached the round of 16 in the previous four Masters tournaments this year. Along with the Italian world number one, Zverev is the biggest candidate for the title in the clay court tournament, which is worth around 8.2 million US dollars. His chances have increased after the cancellations of the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and the Serbian Novak Djoković.
Sinner had previously won the titles in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo – and along the way defeated Zverev in the semi-finals. In Madrid, a meeting between the two is only possible in the final. After all other German tennis men have already been eliminated, Zverev is the only remaining German tennis professional in the individual competitions in Madrid. There are no longer any German players in the women’s tournament.
