Alexander Zverev sends seven-word message after disappointing Jannik Sinner loss

Alexander Zverev suffered his third defeat to Jannik Sinner in under a month, losing when they met in the group stage of the ATP Finals. Defending champion Sinner saved all seven break points he faced to seal a 6-4 6-3 victory and book his spot in the semi-finals.

Although Zverev failed to convert his break points, the German argued that the match was tighter than it looked. During his post-match press conference, the two-time former ATP Finals champion said: "Don't always judge it by the score."

Sinner served lights out every time he faced a break point against Zverev in Turin, and the world No. 3 felt that was the biggest difference compared to their recent Vienna Open final, where Sinner came back from a set down to win 3-6 6-3 7-5.

"Yeah, I think generally today the match, the biggest difference was how he was serving on the break points. I had more break points than him. I felt very good from the baseline, actually better than in Vienna almost, when we were in the rally," Zverev explained.

"To be honest, he had two chances to break me, and he used both of them. I had a lot of chances, and I didn't use any. The score was 6-4, 6-3, but in my opinion, my humble opinion, I felt like the match was closer than the score maybe says. I thought it was a very high-level match. I thought especially from the baseline we played very well.

"This is how it is sometimes. Sometimes when he's having a day like this where he's serving unbelievable... His biggest strength is of course how he plays from the baseline, how he moves, how he hits forehands, how he hits backhands.

"Sometimes when he's serving like this, it's even more difficult because, as you said, seven break points, seven first serves, not one second serve I had. I was not even in the rally at all. I think I made one return. He hit a forehand winner. So yeah, it's difficult like this.

"But of course, he improved his serve a lot. All in all, from the baseline, how the game was, I thought it was a good match, which maybe was closer than the score says."

Zverev has struggled to close the gap with Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in recent years. Ranked at No. 3 in the world, he's still more than 5,000 points behind second-ranked Sinner. When asked how he could improve to get close to the Italian, he reiterated that the match was tighter than it looked.

He added: "Look, of course I think it's quite easy for you guys to ask these questions because the score says 6-4, 6-3. If you look deeper into the match, I really believe that it could have been more than 6-4, 6-3, so... Don't always judge it by the score."

Zverev will face Felix Auger-Aliassime on Friday in their final round-robin match of the week. The winner will also advance to the knockout semi-finals.