Google News Novak Djokovic on Alexander Zverev loss: I feel terrible
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Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic admitted he felt terrible after failing to reach the gold medal match at the Tokyo Olympics. Djokovic, ranked at No. 1 in the world, lost to Germany's Alexander Zverev. Zverev, ranked at No.
5 in the world, recovered from a set down to beat Djokovic 1-6 6-3 6-1 to reach his first Olympic final. Djokovic was up by a set and a break before Zverev won eight consecutive games to overturn the deficit and ultimately claim the win.
“I feel terrible,” said Djokovic, per Tennis365. “It’s just sport. He played better. You’ve got to give him credit for turning the match around. He served extremely well. I was not getting too many looks at the second serve.
“My serve just drastically dropped. I didn’t get any free points from 3-2 up in the second. My game fell apart”.
Djokovic hopes to at least win bronze medal
Djokovic will be fighting Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta for bronze medal.
“Let’s see. I feel terrible right now. Tomorrow hopefully fresh start, recover, and at least win one medal for my country," Djokovic added. Meanwhile, Zverev was delighted after clinching a medal for Germany. "It's an amazing feeling, knowing that you're going to bring the medal back to your house, back home to Germany," Zverev said, per the ITF website.
"It's incredible beating the best player in the world undoubtedly right now, and in this season. It seemed it was impossible to beat him at this event, so I’m very happy right now. But there's still one match to go." Zverev had a few nice words to say to Djokovic at the net.
"I told him that he's the greatest of all time, and he will be," Zverev said of the duo's exchange at the net. "I know that he was chasing history, chasing the golden slam and was chasing the Olympics, but in these kind of moments me and Novak are very close.
Of course I'm happy that I've won, but at the end of the day I know how Novak feels." Zverev changed a few things and it worked out for him. "I was playing his game, I was rallying with him a lot, so I needed to change it up, I needed to swing through the ball a little bit more," Zverev explained of his part in the turnaround. "I started playing much more aggressive, and yeah, I tried to dominate that way."