Zverev booked his spot in the third round of the Shanghai Masters on Saturday, surviving a scare when he injured his toe in the final game of the match and had to call the physio.
The German star still managed to beat qualifier Valentin Royer 6-4 6-4, but he wasn’t happy with the conditions.
The court pace index in Shanghai is much slower than usual this year, and the players have noticed. Taylor Fritz said it was a “very bad change”, while Alex de Minaur described the speed as a “shock to the system”.
And Zverev has become the latest player to call out the increasingly slow conditions across the ATP Tour, suggesting that tournament bosses were reducing the speed to make it earlier for Sinner and Alcaraz to go deep in every draw.
“I hate when it’s the same, to be honest. And I think that the tournament directors are going towards that direction because, obviously, they want Jannik and Carlos to do well every tournament, and that’s what they prefer,” the former finalist in Shanghai said.
“But I’ve been on tour for over 10 years and we always had different surfaces, we always had tournaments which you liked and we always had tournaments which you didn’t like so much, you know?
“You couldn’t play the same tennis the same way on a grass court, hard court, clay court. Nowadays, you can play almost the same way on every surface. I don’t like it, I’m not a fan of it, I think tennis needs different game styles, tennis needs a little bit of variety, and I think we’re lacking that right now.”
Zverev isn’t the only one who believes faster courts could cause more problems for top players like Sinner and Alcaraz. Federer, who retired from professional tennis in 2022, also has a similar theory for the slower speeds.
“I understand the safety net that the tournament directors see in making the surface slower,” he said during a live episode of the Served podcast during the recent Laver Cup.
“It’s for the weaker player – he has to hit extra amazing shots to beat Sinner, whereas if it’s quick, he can only maybe blast a few and, at the right time… and he gets past. So that’s what the tournament directors are [thinking], like ‘I kind of like Sinner-Alcaraz in the finals, you know? It kind of works for the game’.”
Sinner responded to Federer’s claims during the recent China Open, which he went on to win, saying: “The hard courts, they are at times very similar. At times there are some small changes, couple of changes. One tournament that comes up a bit is Indian Wells because the ball bounces very high. It’s a bit different how the ball reacts with the court.
“But yeah, if not, we have more or less similar game situations on the court, yes. This is how it is already since a long time, like this. I don’t know if there is going to be a change or not.
“I’m just a player who tries to adapt myself in the best possible way. I feel like I’m doing a good job in this. But let’s see what the future can give us in every tournament.”