Alexander Zverev is confident of rediscovering his best form at the upcoming Miami Open after a difficult few months since his defeat in the Australian Open final. 

Zverev had promised that he would not be demoralised after defeat against Jannik Sinner in the final at Melbourne Park, but his subsequent results have notably taken a dip. 

Since that grand slam defeat, the world number two has gone 4-4 across events in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Acapulco and Indian Wells. 

Zverev came out on the losing side to Tallon Griekspoor at Indian Wells, becoming the first top seed to lose their opening men's singles match at Indian Wells after winning the first set since the event's inauguration in 1976.  

But the German has enjoyed recent tournaments in Miami, a venue where he holds a 17-9 record, reaching the final in 2018 where he was beaten by John Isner before falling to Grigor Dimitrov at the semi-final stage last year. 

"Miami is my favourite city in the United States. My favourite sports team is here with the Miami Heat, so I genuinely love being here," Zverev said. 

"I genuinely love spending time here. The conditions are just probably more suited for me [than Indian Wells]. The courts are a lot faster.

"It's more humid, so the ball stops through the air maybe a bit more than in the desert.

"But we'll see. I [have not been] playing my best the past few weeks. I started the season well in Australia, not playing my best now for a few weeks, but I hope I can turn it around here and show some good tennis again."

Introducing your Top 8 seeds at the #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/mnLgOjrFgS

— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 19, 2025

Zverev will take on Benjamin Bonzi or Jacob Fearnley in his opening match at Hard Rock Stadium, and has been handed a difficult draw if he is to reach the latter stages. 

He could end up playing Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the third round with 16th seed Frances Tiafoe and 17th seed Arthur Fils being potential fourth-round opponents.

Should he make his way through that, Zverev could square off against Jack Draper, who claimed his first Masters 1000 victory at Indian Wells last week. 

Since October last year, Draper (87.0%, 20-3) only trails Sinner (100.0%, 21-0) for winning percentage at ATP level among players who have played a minimum of five matches. 

The Briton's victory also saw him climb into the top 10 of the ATP rankings, and Zverev believes Draper has improved drastically over the past couple of seasons. 

"He's been playing well since the end of last year, I think," said Zverev of Draper. "He's been improving, and he's a lot more consistent, especially I think on the forehand side, which was always a shaky shot for him.

"But he's definitely a good player. Indian Wells is a tournament where a lot of players struggle, and a lot of players love it. I've always been more on the struggling side, unfortunately.

"He's grown and he's matured a lot, and he deserves to be a Masters 1000 champion. He deserves to be in the top 10 as well, so it's going to be interesting to see how [much] further he develops.

"Good for him and also good for Holger. Holger has been struggling a little bit over the past 18 months, so I'm happy to see him do well as well."