Olympic champion believes next year\u2019s big silverware will likely be shared between him, Djokovic and Medvedev
\nNews Agency
\n Olympic champion Alexander Zverev is confident a changing of the guard is almost complete in men\u2019s tennis with next year\u2019s big silverware likely to be shared between Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and himself.
\nGermany\u2019s Zverev beat Djokovic en route to gold at the Tokyo Olympics and then ended the year by winning the ATP Finals title for the second time.
\nDjokovic won three of the year\u2019s Grand Slam titles but his old rivals Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer failed to add to their collections with the trio tied on 20 majors each.
\nWorld number two Medvedev beat Djokovic in the US Open final while Zverev also reached two Grand Slam semis this year. Heading into the new season Federer, 40, is still recovering from knee surgery while Nadal, 35, is in the early stages of his comeback from a foot injury.
\n\u201cI think next year could be very similar to the last six months from this year,\u201d Zverev, named German Sportsman of the Year this week, told Eurosport Germany\u2019s Das Gelbe vom Ball podcast.
\n\u201cBefore, there used to be always talk about Nadal, Federer and Djokovic — now the big titles were the Olympics, US Open, Turin (ATP Finals) and Wimbledon, and they were all won by Medvedev, Djokovic and me. I don\u2019t expect it to be any different next year.\u201d
\nZverev ended the year ranked three and believes the number one spot is a viable target.
\n\u201cI know I\u2019m not far away from it, but for that I also have to win tournaments and Grand Slams,\u201d he said.
\nTheoretically, the 24-year-old Zverev could become number one if he wins the Australian Open and Djokovic misses the tournament because of its Covid-19 vaccine stance. \u201cThe situation with Novak and Australia is still a big question mark,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cOf course, I hope that he will be allowed to play, that\u2019s very clear. There are thousands of mathematical calculations, if he doesn\u2019t play Australia and I win the Australian Open, then I\u2019m number one in the world and so on and so forth.
\n\u201cAt the end of the day, now is not the time to think about (being number one), not is the time to prepare as best as you can so you\u2019re physically able to play for it.\u201d
\nZverev\u2019s failure to capture a Grand Slam has surprised some, but he is now a consistent threat at the biggest events after initially struggling to show his best at them.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve become much calmer. I\u2019m also getting older. I\u2019m not 18 or 19 anymore. I understand maybe a bit more things about life and understand that you just have to keep calm in important situations,\u201d he said. \u201cThat has had its effect on me this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Olympic champion believes next year\u2019s big silverware will likely be shared between him, Djokovic and Medvedev News Agency Olympic champion Alexander Zverev is confident a changing of the guard is almost complete in men\u2019s tennis with next year\u2019s big silverware likely to be shared between Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and himself. Germany\u2019s Zverev beat Djokovic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2074,460,2076,2075],"class_list":{"0":"post-234747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alexander-zverev","9":"tag-guard","10":"tag-olympic","11":"tag-tennis"},"yoast_head":"\n