By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) -Three-time French Open champion Novak Djokovic is underrated at the age of 38 despite continuing to deliver world class performances, said Germany’s Alexander Zverev after his quarter-final loss to the Serbian on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old, a finalist last year, was attempting to become only the fourth man in the Open era to reach the French Open semi-finals in five consecutive years, after Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Instead he bowed out of the tournament, having lost in four sets to Djokovic, who will play Italian world number one Jannik Sinner for a spot in Sunday’s final.
“I think it was very, very high level from him,” Zverev told a press conference. “It was at some point difficult for me.”
“I, at some point, felt like I didn’t know how to win a point from the baseline against him. I thought he was having solutions to a lot of things that I was doing.”
Djokovic unusually played 35 drop shots in the game, forcing Zverev constantly to the net and mixing up his game to stop the German from pounding him from the baseline.
“I think at the moment he’s a bit underrated, to be honest,” Zverev said of the 38-year-old.
“I think like a lot of people count him out already, but this year he’s had wins over Carlos (Alcaraz) at the Australian Open, he has had a win over me at the French Open.”
“Forget the age. I think for any player, those are pretty good results. He is still beating the best of the best, so I think everybody needs to respect that.”
Former world number one Djokovic is just two matches away from becoming the first player, male or female, to win 25 Grand Slam singles trophies.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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