Zverev complains of his late-season decline

Alexander Zverev has confessed that he would love to just write off the second  half of this season after being slowed by illness and injury.

The German lost the No. 2 ranking behind Jannik Sinner this month, going down in his last match, the Vienna quarter-finals to Lorenzo Musetti.

Zverev is fighting pneumonia as he begins play at this week’s Paris Masters, final event of the ATP regular season.

He is into the field at the eight-man Finals which begin on November 10 and has vowed to fight through even in his reduced state.

The 27-year-old trails second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz by 395 points and is pondering his situation after his luck changed for the worse following Wimbledon.

 “The last few months have not been too good for me, it’s no secret,” he told the ATP heading into the Masters 1000 at Paris Bercy.

The first six months of the year were fantastic. I reached a Grand Slam final (Roland Garros), I came very close to reaching another in Australia (semis)

“I won a Masters 1000 (Rome). I won a lot of matches, in general it was fantastic.”
But then things changed over the summer: 

“(After) the (knee) injury at Wimbledon, from then on I had some health problems.

“I wasn’t playing well, I wasn’t playing good matches, I wasn’t feeling too good either.” the German freely admits: “

I’ve definitely had a slump . I just hope I can be back soon. 

“We still have two big tournaments left at the end of the year and I want to get back to my best tennis in both events.” 

Zverev takes the third Paris seeding and begins in the second round after a bye.