Alexander Zverev has strange excuse for Novak Djokovic loss as he warns Jannik Sinner

pointed to the weather conditions as a contributing factor to his defeat against Novak Djokovic on Wednesday. The third seed won the first set against Djokovic but then lost the remaining three to go crashing out of the at the quarter-final stage.

After peaking early in the match, Zverev had no answers to the player 10 years his senior as the match finished 6-4 3-6 2-6 4-6. The German was unable to weaponise his big serve and found no other means through which to hurt Djokovic, as the pair faced off for the right to play Jannik Sinner in the semis.

Despite both players being subjected to the same conditions, Zverev insisted the sudden cold snap hurt him more than his opponent. "It was very, very cold," he said. "So my serve speed was not very high.

"Again, as I said, I think when the sun completely went down, it was difficult for me to get through the court a little bit. It was difficult for me to find, you know, kind of ways to be dominant in the rally, because my serve was neutralized very well by him.

"Then also, I felt like my groundstrokes, every time I tried to be aggressive, I was not really doing much. It was difficult for me to find a solution, I think, in the cold conditions."

Many only gave Djokovic an outside chance of winning his 25th Grand Slam at Roland-Garros, but the 38-year-old has only dropped one set en route to his meeting with Sinner. And Zverev has warned the No. 1 that Djokovic can never be discounted.

"I think at the moment he's a bit underrated, to be honest," he said. "I think like a lot of people count him out already, but this year he's had wins over Carlos [Alcaraz] at the , he has had a win over me at the French Open. Forget the age. I think for any player, those are pretty good results.

"Of course you will have to ask him how he feels physically and how he will recover and if he'll be at 100 per cent for the next match, because I do think it was quite a physical match today for both of us. But, you know, he's still beating the best of the best, so I think everybody needs to respect that."