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Washington – World Number Three Alexander Zverev begins his bid to defend consecutive ATP field titles at the 50th Washington Open .
The 21-year-old German hopes He repeated last year's success by beating South African Kevin Anderson in the Washington final and then defeating Roger Federer a week later in the final of the Canadian Open
"Washington is the perfect preparation for Toronto and Cincinnati". the main accelerations before the US Open.
"I did a good two weeks of training, just in general, it was like a dead mini-season for me, just a lot of work to try to get ready for the hard ground . "
Zverev will be the seeded Washington event ahead of the ninth John Isner, who has just clinched his best career Grand Slam result in the semifinals of Wimbledon and his 14th ATP title last week at Atlanta.
The list of Washington champions includes legends like Arthur Ashe, Ken Rosewall, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Andre Agbadi.
"This tournament has a list of great champions," said Zverev. "I'm happy to be part of that and I'm going to do my best to win again."
Zverev seeks his ninth career ATP title and the third of the year. He defended a claycourt crown in Munich, his first repeat title, and lost to Rafael Nadal in the Madrid final defending the Spanish crown.
"We young people have to go through a lot of first times," Zverev told me. I have already gone through this stage.
A solid clay season led to his biggest Grand Slam race, a defeat in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros against Austrian Dominic Thiem. But Zverev fell to Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the third round at Wimbledon, losing 12 of the last 15 games in a five-set loss.
This event marks the first week that the ATP will use "shot clocks", which allow players to 25 seconds to serve, and apply a seven-minute warm-up. "They explained it to us, it's a change, I think it's a good thing that they're trying it before the US Open," he said. Zverev. I am one of the fastest players, so I do not think it changes much for me, it will be important to listen to the reactions of the players, to hear their opinions, it will also be important for the ATP. "
Zverev said that he does not expect that players use the clock to disrupt the timing of rivals during a match." I am not someone who is trying to get my opponent out of his pace, "said Zverev." I try to play tennis better than my opponent, I do not try to break the rhythm of an opponent, I'm not that kind of player. "
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