The German has a suggestion for anyone still hoping a fatter bonus check will drag Djokovic back to the smaller stops on the calendar: check his bank statement first.
“You think Novak will care if he gets a bigger bonus?” Zverev told reporters at his pre-tournament press conference in Montreal.
“I think the guy has, I mean, if I would have to guess, the guy is north of 400 million in his bank account, and so I’m not sure he would care about 50,000 more or less.”
The line came after Canadian Open director Valérie Tétreault and Tennis Canada chief Gavin Ziv publicly floated the idea of tweaking bonus structures and ranking penalties to persuade top players to show up in Montreal.
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Zverev was equally blunt on whether the ranking lever has any pull for a 24-time major champion.
“I don’t think he cares about his ranking either.”
He argued the real problem is the calendar, not the cash.
“If everything goes to the old and we would play one-week Masters events, yeah, we can talk about it, but if you’re forcing us to be away for two and a half, three weeks during Grand Slams and the same then goes for Masters events, you can’t force us to play.”
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The vanishing act at the top of the draw
Zverev is playing at a tournament where his three main rivals have simply not shown up. Djokovic opted out. Sinner withdrew for rest. Alcaraz is out with an injury layoff, which is also why Félix Auger-Aliassime moved up to the No. 2 seed behind the German.
That is how the reigning maiden Grand Slam champion ended up as the tournament’s headline name, with the Canadian second and Alex de Minaur third.
The 96-player draw runs from August 1 to 13, with the top 32 seeds handed a first-round bye. Zverev goes straight into second-round action at IGA Stadium against Tallon Griekspoor on Wednesday, scheduled for 6:20pm local time. Griekspoor booked the meeting with a 7-6, 7-5 win over Lorenzo Sonego.
‘It’s not rocket science’
Zverev did not dismiss the existing bonus system, only the notion that piling more money on top of it would move Djokovic.
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“That’s the way it is right now. I mean, it’s not rocket science. We get bonuses at the end of the year if we play all nine Masters.”
For a tournament trying to solve the problem of missing headliners, the top seed’s message was that the missing headliners are already comfortable enough to say no.
