<p class="title">Furious fourth seed Alexander Zverev crashed out of the Australian Open on Monday but said he "felt better" after smashing his racquet to pieces in frustration.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Zverev erupted in the second set of a 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) fourth-round humiliation by Canadian 16th seed Milos Raonic, hammering his racquet into the ground eight times to leave it a mangled mess.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Yeah, it made me feel better. I was very angry, so I let my anger out," he told reporters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">And the volatile German was surprised when asked if he had done it before. "You never watched my matches? You should watch my matches," he smiled.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Zverev was tipped as a future Grand Slam champion after a breakthrough 2018 that saw him win the ATP Tour Finals, beating Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the process.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Instead it was a familiar tale of woe as he failed to make the last-eight of a major for the 14th time in 15 majors.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The world number four broke former world number three Raonic's formidable serve at the start of the match but then imploded to lose nine straight games in an error-strewn disaster.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I mean, I played bad. The first two sets especially I played horrible," admitted Zverev, who committed eight double faults and 16 unforced errors against eight winners in the 63-minute duration of the first two sets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Yeah, I mean, it's just tough to name one thing (I did well). I didn't serve well, didn't play well from the baseline. Against a quality player like him, it's tough to come back from that."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Zverev left the court to cool off and at least was competitive when he returned for the third set which he took to a tiebreak.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I obviously tried to come back and obviously in the third set I started to play a little bit better, but, you know, it was a little bit too late already."</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the 21-year-old, widely regarded as the flag-bearer for the next generation, said he would not let another early Slam exit get him down.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Now I'm not happy, but I'm not depressed, either. It's fine. It's a tennis match. I have learned to take tennis matches as tennis matches and not the end of the world," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If I would think it's the end of the world every time I lose a tennis match, I would be very depressed about 15 to 20 times a year. So I'm not going to do that."</p>
<p class="title">Furious fourth seed Alexander Zverev crashed out of the Australian Open on Monday but said he "felt better" after smashing his racquet to pieces in frustration.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Zverev erupted in the second set of a 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) fourth-round humiliation by Canadian 16th seed Milos Raonic, hammering his racquet into the ground eight times to leave it a mangled mess.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Yeah, it made me feel better. I was very angry, so I let my anger out," he told reporters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">And the volatile German was surprised when asked if he had done it before. "You never watched my matches? You should watch my matches," he smiled.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Zverev was tipped as a future Grand Slam champion after a breakthrough 2018 that saw him win the ATP Tour Finals, beating Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the process.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Instead it was a familiar tale of woe as he failed to make the last-eight of a major for the 14th time in 15 majors.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The world number four broke former world number three Raonic's formidable serve at the start of the match but then imploded to lose nine straight games in an error-strewn disaster.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I mean, I played bad. The first two sets especially I played horrible," admitted Zverev, who committed eight double faults and 16 unforced errors against eight winners in the 63-minute duration of the first two sets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Yeah, I mean, it's just tough to name one thing (I did well). I didn't serve well, didn't play well from the baseline. Against a quality player like him, it's tough to come back from that."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Zverev left the court to cool off and at least was competitive when he returned for the third set which he took to a tiebreak.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I obviously tried to come back and obviously in the third set I started to play a little bit better, but, you know, it was a little bit too late already."</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the 21-year-old, widely regarded as the flag-bearer for the next generation, said he would not let another early Slam exit get him down.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Now I'm not happy, but I'm not depressed, either. It's fine. It's a tennis match. I have learned to take tennis matches as tennis matches and not the end of the world," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If I would think it's the end of the world every time I lose a tennis match, I would be very depressed about 15 to 20 times a year. So I'm not going to do that."</p>