Alexander Zverev: Growing In Confidence & Potential

Just 20 years old, Alexander Zverev is the youngest qualifier at the Nitto ATP Finals since Juan Martin Del Potro’s appearance at the 2008 season finale. Simon Briggs of The Daily Telegraph looks at the fast rise of a German who has been spoken of as a future No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

At the start of the year, Alexander Zverev would have been on most people’s lists to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals, the experimental 21-and-under tournament that was held in Milan last week for the first time. But Zverev himself had other ideas. Sure, it would be good to prove himself the best player in his age-group. But why stop there? 

With his 130 miles per hour serve, his ferocious hitting off the ground, and the long-legged athleticism that would put many a basketball player to shame, why shouldn’t Zverev stand among the best players of the world, period? In other words, why should he restrict himself to the 21-and-under version, when he had a decent shot at competing in the Nitto ATP Finals as well? There was certainly no bashfulness on this front from Zverev himself. The 6’6” German has been tipped for years as a future No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings – a diagnosis he himself is happy to go along with. 

If Zverev possesses uncanny self-confidence, this may have something to do with his background. His parents, who hail from Russia, are tennis lifers who built his game from scratch. And his brother Mischa has been a tour player since 2005. Even as a small child, Alexander – or Sascha, as his family call him – was there at the side of the court, gripping his cut-down racquet and waiting for his turn once the big boys had finished. 

“Sascha was mentally a little bit better prepared for the tennis tour,” said Sascha’s father, Zverev Snr., when asked recently to compare the brothers. “For Mischa, everything was new. But when Sascha was six years old, for example, Djokovic was 15 or 16. Djokovic was at the same tournament and he was playing with Sascha a little bit, maybe tennis or football.” 

Alexander Zverev Snr., known to the family and back-up team simply as “Papa”, was a player of real talent in his own right. Born in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, he represented Russia 36 times in the Davis Cup, claiming victories over such familiar names as Miloslav Mecir and Vijay Amritraj. But he wasn’t able to travel regularly to tournaments because of the political climate.

In 1991, the Zverevs moved to Hamburg, where Alexander Jnr. was born in 1997. As the baby became a toddler, Papa found most of his time taken up by Mischa, who is almost 10 years older. So it was the boys’ mother Irina – inevitably known as “Mama” – who constructed her younger son’s game. “My father is my coach,” Zverev puts it, “but when I was younger my mother was guiding me more. I think I have pretty good technique, which my Mum did at a young age so credit to her for that. My backhand, in particular, is 100 per cent down to my Mum.”

This may explain the dramatic contrast between the two sons’ styles. Mischa is a throwback, coming to the net on every point behind his lefty serve. Sascha is right-handed and almost allergic to the volley, the one part of his game that his father admits he needs to brush up on. From the back of the court, though, he is relentless off both wings. The forehand is heavy and versatile, and the backhand is technically flawless – a two-hander that resembles Novak Djokovic’s in its consistency, yet travels at greater speed. Combine that with the loping, almost effortless lateral movement across the baseline – which he is able to cover in a couple of giant strides – and he makes an intimidating prospect for anyone.

Zverev was still only 19 when he won his first ATP World Tour title, in St Petersburg, just over a year ago, by overcoming Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka in successive matches. And that breakthrough seemed to flick a switch. From the beginning of this season, he has been mopping up the trophies: Montpellier, Munich, Rome, Washington D.C. and Montreal. And the most significant element in that series is Rome, where he defeated Djokovic in the final to become the youngest winner of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in 10 years (since Djokovic himself). By beating Roger Federer in the Montreal final he became the first player outside the ‘Big Four’ to win multiple Masters 1000 titles in the same season since David Nalbandian in 2007. 

Another of Zverev’s remarkable assets is his physical resilience. Zverev might still look like a baby giraffe, his stretched-out limbs suggesting a lack of steadiness, but this is an optical illusion. In fact, he has been training with Jez Green – formerly Andy Murray’s fitness guru – since he was 16 to make sure he could withstand the pummeling of year-round tennis. 

As you can see, Zverev has been one step ahead of the game since the very beginning. Clearly, he possesses all the natural attributes, including an eye as sharp as a raptor’s, and the cussed nature that has always driven him to fight until the last point. But he has also been steered to perfection by his family, his agent Patricio Apey (who also used to work with Murray) and the rest of his backroom staff.

In August, Zverev finally brought in an outside coach for the first time. His choice was Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former World No. 1, whom he described as “such an easy guy to be around”. One suspects, though, that Ferrero is there to offer experience more than technical guidance. The only thing that Alexander Zverev Snr. lacks is the first-hand knowledge of what it is like to land major titles.

“I think my dad might be one of the best family coaches of all time,” Zverev has said. “He has two sons who are in the Top 25 in the world… with two completely different game styles. That’s not easy to do. You’ve got to be very smart, you’ve got to know what to practise and what to teach… Our practice sessions are completely different. I think no other coach has done that, to bring two players from scratch, absolute zero to the Top 25 in the world. So I think he really is one of the greatest coaches of all time.”

Only time will tell whether Alexander Zverev Jnr. will deliver on all the extraordinary predictions that have been made about him. What we do know, though, is that he couldn’t have got off to a better start.  

The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals will be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November