Melbourne, Jan 14 (AFP) Giant German Alexander Zverev hasbeen widely tipped for greatness but has so far failed to gobeyond a Grand Slam fourth round -- something he plans to fixat the Australian Open.
The 20-year-old heads into the year's first Grand Slamranked fourth in the world, courtesy of five titles last year.
His progress has marked him out as the most likely of thecurrent crop of youngsters to translate his talent into majortitles.
While he made the fourth round at Wimbledon last year, heis yet to push on further.
"I think improving the Grand Slam performances," he saidat Melbourne Park when asked what his key goal was for theyear.
"I mean, the furthest I've got was to the fourth round ofWimbledon. A lot of times not because I played bad, butbecause I played very good opponents.
"I lost to (Rafael) Nadal here. I lost to (Milos) Raonicin Wimbledon. Every time in five sets. That's nothing to worryabout too much. But obviously that's one goal for me thisyear." Zverev was one of just four men to beat his idol RogerFederer in 2017 when he defeated him in the Montreal final.
The Swiss great has said the German has the "fullpackage" and Zverev is determined to demonstrate his range ofskills at the opening Grand Slam of the year, starting Monday.
"I've showed on multiple occasions over the year that Ican play and beat the best guys in the world. I mean, I'mnumber four in the world for a reason," he said.
"I'm not trying to sound cocky or anything, but I'vealways said that I've always been working hard physically, I'malways trying to improve the performance at the Grand Slams.
"Hopefully I can do so this week." At stake is the opportunity to become the youngest GrandSlam men's singles champion in a decade -- a record currentlyheld by Novak Djokovic who was 20 years and 250 days when hewon the Australian Open in 2008.
Zverev was knocked out in the third round here last yearand opens his 2018 campaign against Italy's Thomas Fabbianowith a potential third-round clash against his older brotherMischa awaiting him.
"Hopefully we can get there. It will be an interestingday," said Zverev. (AFP) ATAT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.