Alexander Zverev has continued his feud with Nick Kyrgios by claiming there are “a lot” of players better than him. The pair came to blows at the ATP Cup earlier this month.
Kyrgios taunted his rival by doing push ups after each of Zverev’s 14 double faults during the German’s loss to Alex de Minaur.
The world No 30, alongside De Minaur, helped their nation to the semi-finals of the inaugural event.
But Zverev’s Germany crashed out in the group stages as the 22-year-old lost all of his three matches.
The world No 7 was quizzed on if Kyrgios, who has strong record against the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, is capable of winning a Grand Slam.
And Zverev took a cheeky swipe by claiming there are “a lot” of youngsters better than Kyrgios.
“There’s a lot of young guys that are right now, no offence, just better than him,” Zverev said.
“I think Stefanos [Tsitsipas] is better than him. Just simply because he is better over five sets and that’s what you need as well.
“This is not a three-set match where you can win in an hour-and-20 (minutes) and get off the court.
“To beat the best, you have to play at your best for a longer period of time.”
Most of Australia’s hopes in the men’s draw are pinned on Kyrgios after impressive career wins over the likes of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
But Zverev feels fellow Next Gen star Alex de Minaur should have been getting more attention before he was made to pull out of the tournament through injury.
“In fact Alex De Minaur is just simply more consistent right now as well,” Zverev added.
“I don’t know why not a lot of people talk about him because he’s been playing unbelievable at the ATP Cup.
“He beat me for the first time in his life. He beat [Denis] Shapovalov, he had a great match with Rafa [Nadal].
“He’s been playing some great ball as well.
After losing to De Minaur at the ATP Cup, Zverev revealed how Grigor Dimitrov almost had a fight with Kyrgios two years ago.
“What do you want me to say? It’s Nick. It’s just what he does,” Zverev said of Kyrgios’ push-ups.
“He does that at Laver Cup as well. I mean, I know that Grigor almost had a fight with him and Jack in 2018.
“Yeah, I mean, he can do whatever he wants. If he wants to do push-ups, that’s fine, as long as he doesn’t offend anybody or do the Nick Kyrgios stuff that he sometimes does that I don’t care about it.”
