Zizou Bergs on career-high ranking: “I’m happy, but not satisfied”

Zizou Bergs continues to flourish in his breakthrough season and has a career-high ranking to show for it.

On this week’s episode of The Sit-Down podcast, Bergs hopes his ascent is far from over.

LISTEN: Zizou Bergs on The Sit-Down

“Sometimes I’m surprised by [the fact that] ‘oh, I’m today 46 in the world’, and on the other side I’m like yeah, I’m happy but not satisfied, so you just want to keep going,” explained Bergs, who has since gone on to crack the top 40.

“What I love about being an athlete is you go out there every day, try to improve. The focus is not on ‘oh, I have to go to work’ or ‘oh, I have to do this’. No, you do this because you want to and want you want to get better.”

Bergs’ season highlights have included reaching ATP Tour finals in Auckland and s’Hertogenbosch, earning his first top-10 win over Andrey Rublev at Miami, and reaching the third round of the US Open.

More recently, he achieved a career-best Masters result at Shanghai, beating Sebastian Korda, Casper Ruud, Francisco Cerundolo, and Gabriel Diallo en route to the quarterfinals before eventually falling to Novak Djokovic.

It was only last year when Bergs made his Grand Slam main-draw debut when he qualified for Roland Garros and went on to reach the third round.

“The whole vibe and atmosphere was just special because at Roland Garros so many Belgians are coming because it’s only like a two to four hour drive from Belgium,” said Bergs, the top-ranked ATP player from his country.

“It gives you so much energy and so much motivation and thrill to go for it.

“This is what I really like about being an athlete and it’s in different sports. It’s a whole atmosphere around it and that was very special at Roland Garros.”

When competing, the world No.39 has become known as quite the showman, taking inspiration from his childhood idols.

“I feel like if I’m me, it’s going to be a player who’s like Gael [Monfils], like [Jo-Wilfried] Tsonga, like [Andy] Roddick and stuff who enjoys himself with the crowd and sometimes put on a little show,” Bergs said.

“So yeah, that became my natural Zizou.”

Although yet to win his first tour-level title, his “small adjustments” are proving beneficial.

Given the direction in which he is trending, such a milestone could be on the horizon.

“I’m a guy who tries to focus on the one percents and it goes really far. And I’m very detailed and very scientific as well,” he explained.

“I want to know. I want to get it measured. I want to see data, and this is kind of how we work, and I feel like sometimes it just clicks.

“The level just raises, and you make small clicks and you understand a few things [that] help you win a few more matches, help you pass the next level, and I feel like it’s been going like that.”

Listen to the full episode of The Sit-Down, a weekly podcast released each Monday featuring an in-depth interview with a notable tennis identity. Subscribe to The Sit-Down in your favourite podcast player.

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