Alexander Zverev reflects on beating Novak Djokovic: 'One of the best matches I ever played maybe'

Alexander Zverev remains very happy with his first Masters 1000 win in the Italian Open over Novak Djokovic, but is already thinking ahead to the future.

The young German defeated the former world number one 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday (21 May) to win his fourth career title and his third of 2017.

He is now the youngest Masters champion since Djokovic held that title after winning the 2007 Miami Open, as the 20-year-old reflected on what was his best matches ever.

"I'm very happy the way I played," Zverev said, as quoted on Tennis World USA. "Very happy with my performance all week, actually. And especially today, I think today was one of the best matches I ever played maybe."

"I knew I had to be aggressive from the first point on and to the last. It was very important for me to be able to stay this aggressive and don't let him take over the game."

The win also meant that Zverev had jumped from 17th in the ATP world rankings to a career high of 10th, as he revealed that staying in the top 10 will be his goal as he heads back to the practice courts to improve his game.

"When I was 11 or 12, I thought I'd probably win about four Slams already by the age of 20," he joked. "Then when I was 16, everything started to be more realistic. I could not imagine Top 10 by the age of 20. It's something truly amazing. Getting there is one thing, but staying there is going to be very, very difficult."

"Even though I won this title, I will be back on the practice courts very soon trying to improve my game. I'm trying to get better and accomplish even more."

With the French Open next on the agenda, Zverev is confident that he can beat any player on his day, but still maintains that the favourite is Rafael Nadal.

"Before this week, I would have given me also close to zero chances of winning here [Rome]," he added. "So as I showed this week, I can play and beat the best players at the biggest tournaments. Hopefully I can continue my form like I did here into Paris, and we'll see what it holds for me there."

"The favorite is still definitely Rafael Nadal. Strong favorite. And the other, the rest, is going to be quite open. I think Novak is playing quite great again. Dominic [Thiem] has been showing he's been playing very, very well. I just won here. So I've got to put me on that list even though, you know, I don't want to sound like I want to say that I'm the favorite myself or something like this. But those kind of guys who have been playing the best over the last few weeks are definitely the favorites."