Alexander Zverev has moved into the Australian Open semifinals for the third year in a row.
Last year, he made it to his first final in Melbourne, though Jannik Sinner was too strong for him that day, winning in straight sets.
This time around, Zverev’s path looked tougher from the start, with questions about whether he could get back to the title match again.
After getting past Learner Tien to book his spot in the last four, Zverev spoke about a mistake he made last year and how he plans to avoid repeating it this time around.
Alexander Zverev opens up on what went wrong in 2025
After reaching the final of the Australian Open last year, Zverev struggled to find the same kind of form and only won one title all year at the ATP 250 tournament in Munich.
This was seemingly partly down to Zverev having some physical struggles, particularly in the latter stages of the year.
These injury issues were raised in his post-match press conference after beating Tien, where Zverev was asked if he would consider playing less events like both Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner have done.
Zverev played eight more tournaments than Alcaraz in 2025, and 14 more than Sinner, who faced a three-month ban, and he has now admitted that he wants to schedule his season better this year.
“I’m not complaining at all about my life. I’m very happy with my bank account as well, I’m not saying that, but it’s a bit different also,” continued Zverev.
“Roger [Federer], at some point at the end of his career was playing, like, maybe ten events a year. Novak [Djokovic] now is playing ten events a year. It’s very different.”
“I love South America. I really do. I love the countries. I love the experience of being there. But it was probably not a smart decision on maybe going to Buenos Aires right. Maybe I should have skipped that and maybe gone to Rio.”
Zverev revealed how it wasn’t necessarily physical injuries that began impacting him early last season but rather mental fatigue from playing so many events.
It seems as though it took a full year for this mistake to be realised by him fully though.
Zverev opens up about where the real pressure hits during Grand Slam runs
Zverev has made it deep into majors before, but the title has always stayed just out of reach.
He’s now 0-for-3 in Grand Slam finals and was recently asked whether the pressure ramps up for him this late in a major.
But Zverev pushed back on that idea, saying the early rounds are where players really feel the heat.
“Well, actually I feel like maybe top players feel the most pressure in the beginning (smiling), you know, not have an early exit,” responded Zverev.
“Now, whoever I’m going to play in the semis, Carlos or Alex [de Minaur], they’re great players. You just are looking forward to a fantastic match. That’s what you are looking forward to.”
“Of course, in my case, yeah, I’m still chasing that desired slam. Of course, I still want to achieve that, but I also want to enjoy my tennis. Right now I’m doing that and that’s the most important thing for me.”
This will be their 13th meeting overall with their head-to-head record split evenly at six wins each.
The Spaniard won their last clash but Zverev can point back to two years ago when he knocked off Alcaraz at this same event as evidence he can pull off another win here.
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