First-Time Winner Spotlight: Alexander Zverev

How does it feel to be standing here with the trophy, your first ATP World Tour title?
It’s great at such a young age as well. It’s something that I could only dream of and I’m really proud of myself right now.

Did you ever imagine that at the age of 19 you’d be an ATP World Tour winner?
I got to a few finals where I was really close but before when I was a kid, no I could have not imagined that. It’s something really special to be here and getting this trophy for the first time.

Was it your dream growing up to win a title?
Of course. I think for anybody who plays tennis, it’s a dream to win a tour title.

Did you go into this final with a different mindset compared to your past two in Nice and Halle?
In Nice, I was quite tired. I think I spent 12 hours on court before that final. I played three-set matches every single match I played. But Halle was a chance that I could have taken and won the final. But the mindset has to be the same. How I handle the situation is different now because I had those two finals before.

How does it feel to be the first teenage winner on the tour since Marin Cilic in 2008?
Really? I’m the first one. Wow. No, it’s great. As I said winning a tour title was always a dream and now it came true and being the first since ’08, it’s great.

Does it make it special to have beaten two Top 10 players along the way, back-to-back?
Oh yeah it’s definitely something special, beating Tomas Berdych in the semis and beating Stan Wawrinka, who’s the US Open champion, in the final. It’s something even more that I’m proud of.

You didn’t lose a set en route to the final. Talk about your exceptional play and what you did well this week.
I played OK. I played pretty well. I was serving pretty good the whole week, which helps on a fast court, indoors. And I was pretty good, pretty solid from the baseline. Obviously I had a few tough opponents but yeah, I was happy with the way I played.

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Now that you’ve won your first title, have you thought about what’s next, your next goals?
Winning another one hopefully.

You and Nick Kyrgios are the first #NextGen players to win an ATP World Tour title this season. Talk about this young group of future stars.
As I said before there’s a strong group of guys coming up who all play pretty good tennis. You mention Nick, who’s Top 20 now. He’s been playing exceptional this year. Other teenagers like Taylor Fritz or Borna Coric, they’ve been playing pretty good. Some Russian guys are coming through quite well as well, like Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev. They’ve all been playing quite good tennis this year.

Lastly, when you were growing up, who were the players you followed most closely?
Roger. Quite simple.