This had a different feel to his two previous Grand Slam finals, having been a set away from the title against Dominic Thiem at the US Open and more recently Carlos Alcaraz at Roland Garros.

Despite the disappointment of his defeat, Zverev received encouragement from Novak Djokovic in a message on social media.

The German also received support from his Australian Open final opponent, with Sinner backing Zverev to make a breakthrough.

Mardy Fish names Marcelo Rios over Alexander Zverev as the best player without a Grand Slam

It has previously been argued that Zverev is the best player without a major title to his name.

This topic was brought up by former Olympic silver medallist and top 10 player Mardy Fish, who questioned whether Zverev is the best player not to win a Grand Slam.

In his social media post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Fish brought up other names including Marcelo Rios.

“Besides me (obvi), who is the greatest player to never win a major on the men’s side?” asked Fish. “Talent wise, I’ll go with Rios. Zverev slide into that spot now? Guy has been so damn good. [David] Ferrer? [Miroslav] Mecir?”

Rios was world number one for six weeks in 1998, and reached his only Grand Slam final at the Australian Open where he lost to Petr Korda, father of Sebastian Korda.

When asked in a reply to his original post about if Rios would beat Zverev, Fish suggested that the Chilean may have fared better in the current era.

“Demolished, was your word…” Fish responded. “Rios would have been way better in this era with the slower courts and balls. He played in an era that was very fast surfaces and monster servers.”

Alexander Zverev joins unwanted list of players to lose first three Grand Slam finals

After losing in the Australian Open final, Zverev has become part of an unwanted statistic after joining six other men’s players to lose their first three Grand Slam finals.

This list includes Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi and Andy Murray, who coached Djokovic at the Australian Open.

However, the promising news for Zverev is that five of these players went onto win at least one major title, with Casper Ruud the only other player in this list still without one.

Zverev will now turn his focus away from the Grand Slams and head to South America for the clay court swing at tournaments in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

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