Alexander “Sascha” Zverev has tennis in his blood. Son of Alexander Sr., who represented the Soviet Union in Davis Cup, and younger brother of ATP World Tour professional Mischa, the 18-year-old German shares some of his tennis memories in this Biofile with Scoop Malinowski.

Born On: April 20, 1997 in Hamburg, Germany

First Tennis Memory: I’ve been told that I was like a year old and I was always taking a little tennis racquet and just playing with balls in the apartment. I guess that’s my first.

Tennis Inspirations: Roger Federer. And I also get inspired by other sports like Dwyane Wade for example inspires me a lot. The way he plays at his age and the way he has a family. And such a good father and manages to be one of the best basketball players in the world.

First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered: It was Roger Federer when I was about four years old – I believe in Hamburg in our hometown tournament. I was just somewhere in the players’ lounge. That’s my first time I remember meeting someone of the players.

Last Book Read: Probably a school book – you don’t read these days – you watch Netflix.

Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: Basketball.

Greatest Sports Moment: Well I actually have two. One of them was reaching semifinals of Hamburg last year. The other one was winning my first round at Wimbledon 9-7 in the fifth set (vs Teymuraz Gabashvili) which was (an) over four hour match where I really had all kinds of physical problems. I had cramps – I was getting sick – and I still managed to win that. That is where I’m kind of proud of myself as well.

Most Painful Moment: Losing to (David) Ferrer in the semi-final wasn’t very nice in Hamburg – love and one [smiles]. Probably the French Open junior final back in 2013 (to Christian Garin) when I was only sixteen years old. I really wanted to win that but unfortunately I didn’t. The worst experience of my career was playing my brother (Mischa). You have to win the point…but then you’re playing your brother and you don’t want to win.

Strangest Match: Actually this year in Miami. I played Sam Groth. I did not win one single point on his serve. Until the game of 6-5 30-love for him. And I broke him. I won four points straight. Then the whole match I won about twelve points on his serve. And I broke him twice. So I still have no idea how I won that match [smiles].

Three Athletes You Like To Watch & Follow: Roger Federer. Dwyane Wade. And Dirk Nowitzki.

Funniest Players Encountered: Oh there are a few – Gael Monfils. Marinko Matosevic. And I don’t know – there’s probably others.

Why Do You Love Playing Tennis: Because it’s one on one sport. You don’t get that in any other sport really. The closest you get is probably boxing. You still have your coaches and your team in your corner telling you what to do and stuff. I think tennis all depends on yourself. And that’s something fantastic about tennis.

Favorite Tournament(s): Hamburg, because it’s my hometown. And it’s one of the greatest tournaments out there.

People Qualities Most Admired: Just honesty. I don’t like fake people a lot.

Courtesy of Scoop Malinowski, tennis-prose.com. Scoop is the author of “Facing Federer” , “Facing Hewitt” and “Facing Nadal”, all available on Amazon. 

Continuing our Season In Review Series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the biggest Grand Slam upsets of 2015. In today’s countdown we feature Nos. 2-1:

2. Benoit Paire d. Kei Nishikori 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4/R128/US Open

The accolades, the praise kept coming. Long a highly touted prospect, Kei Nishikori’s grip-and-rip game had finally come together on the biggest of stages. The tireless baseliner and dogged competitor had broken through at the Slams, reaching the title tilt at the 2014 US Open, where he would come up just short against Croat Marin Cilic. Though the modest Japanese star would insist that his spot amongst the Top 5 in the Emirates ATP Rankings was “just a number,” it was clear he had earned it and was here to stay.

Roger Federer called the Japanese star “very solid, very consistent, very dangerous,” adding, “Doesn’t matter what the score is, doesn’t matter how long the match goes, you’re aware that Kei is not going to go away.”

Said Aussie Bernard Tomic, “If I played Kei 10 times, I could beat him once, twice right now.”

So expectations were understandably high when the 25-year-old returned to Flushing Meadows, site of some of the greatest moments of his career. The reigning runner-up had enjoyed a stellar summer hard-court swing, lifting the trophy in Washington (d. John Isner) before beating Rafael Nadal en route to the Montreal semi-finals (l. to Andy Murray).

Having dropped the first set, Nishikori seemed poised for victory as he turned the score line around and held two match points at 6-4 in the fourth-set tie-break. However, he pushed a forehand wide on his first opportunity on serve and was denied on his second on Benoit Paire’s serve. The Frenchman then clinched his first set point chance when Nishikori netted a backhand.

Paire, 26, secured an early break advantage in the fifth set and went on to close out the victory in three hours and 14 minutes. It was only the World No. 41’s third career Top-10 win and his first over a Top-5 opponent.

The last US Open runner-up to lose the following year in the first round was Andre Agassi, who was beaten by Aaron Krickstein in 1991 after falling to Pete Sampras in the 1990 final.

“When I saw the draw against Kei, I said, ‘Bad luck. You play Kei in the first round, he made final last year.’ [But] you have to find pleasure in this match. You have to feel good on the court, to have fun. You’re going to play on a big court, in a big stadium. My coach told me the most important thing is when you go out of the court, you win, you lose, you don’t care, just have fun.”

“It’s always very sad to lose in the first round,” said Nishikori. “I don’t think I played badly. Didn’t play great, but still, it’s never an easy first match. He’s a good player. I hope I can come back strong next year.”

1. Andreas Seppi d. Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5)/R32/Australian Open

In their 10 previous encounters, Andreas Seppi had claimed a total of just one set against Roger Federer. So there was little reason to expect anything out of the ordinary when they took the court for their third-round contest at the Australian Open on January 23.

So when the 48^th-ranked Seppi won a pair of tight tie-breaks to pull off a 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5) upset, ending Federer’s run off 11 straight years of semi-final or better showings in Melbourne, even the Italian was in shock.

“To beat Roger for the first time, especially in a Grand Slam, best-of-five, is a special moment for me,” said Seppi, who snapped a 23-match losing streak against Top-10 competition. “You don’t play every day on centre court, full stadium in a Grand Slam against Roger. I was pretty calm, I have to say, from the beginning. Also in the important moments.”

Perhaps the most important moment came in the fourth-set tie-break.  Up 3-1 in the stanza, Federer double faulted. He would have another chance to serve it out at 5-4, but the Swiss made a costly backhand error. Seppi would take full advantage, completing the against-all-odds triumph in stunning fashion with a forehand pass down the line. The ATP World Tour veteran would call it one of the important shots of his life.

One of the most important shots, but surely the most important win. Seppi had defeated Rafael Nadal in 2008 when the Spaniard was the World No. 2, but his win over Federer in Melbourne had come on a Grand Slam stage.

“I felt for some reason yesterday and this morning it was not going to be very simple today,” said Federer. “Even in practice I still felt the same way. I was just hoping it was one of those feelings you sometimes have and it’s totally not true and you just come out and you play a routine match. I was aware of the test and was well prepared.”

Federer would register three wins over Seppi before the year was over (Indian Wells, Halle, Paris), making the Australian Open result even more puzzling.

Continuing our Season In Review Series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the biggest Grand Slam upsets of 2015. In today’s countdown we feature Nos. 5-3:

5. Nikoloz Basilashvili d. Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4/R64/Wimbledon

On one side of the net stood a three-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist, a 33-year-old ATP World Tour veteran from Spain who a year earlier rose to a career-high No. 14 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. On the other stood a 23-year-old journeyman from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a 115^th-ranked qualifier who was appearing on the lawns of the All England Club for the very first time.

To say the result was unexpected would be putting it mildly.

Despite a 32-ace barrage from 15^th-seeded left-hander Feliciano Lopez, the all but unknown Nikoloz Basilashvili prevailed in five dramatic sets 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Basilashvili scored the only break of the opening set, and converted one of four opportunities in the third en route to the upset. Lopez would step it up in the fourth to force a decider, but Basilashvili broke serve twice in the stanza to seal the unlikely outcome. He became only the fourth Georgian man to reach the third round at Wimbledon, and the first since Irakli Labadze in 2006.

4. Dustin Brown d. Rafael Nadal 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4/R64/Wimbledon

Dustin Brown makes no secret of his love of grass-court tennis. But few prognosticators foresaw an upset on the afternoon of July 2 when the dreadlocked German recorded his first win over a seed at a Grand Slam.

Brown’s upset of two-time Wimbledon champ Rafael Nadal was only his third career victory over a Top-10 opponent. His aggressive serve-and-volley tactics paid off. He averaged 118 miles per hour on his serve, struck 13 aces and won 72 of his first-serve points. In charging the net on 85 occasions, he backed his natural game to nullify Nadal.

John McEnroe, himself a three-time champion at Wimbledon, called Brown’s unforeseen triumph one of the best performances he had ever seen by a lower‑ranked player (No. 102 in the Emirates ATP Rankings) on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

“It’s a great feeling for him to say that, from the generation that was playing like that, playing serve and volley, coming to the net a lot,” said Brown, who improved to 2-0 vs. Nadal, having also defeated the Spaniard last summer on grass in Halle. “It was great to be able to do that today and do it for that long.”

“He’s one of the best players in the sport, and for me, being able to play against him twice on my favorite surface, is probably my luck,” added Brown. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to play him on clay or hard court because it would make playing my type of tennis even more difficult. I’m happy I got to play him on that court win or lose.  All the kids that play tennis dream about being able to play on that Centre Court.  Playing against him there is special.”

Nadal reached five straight Wimbledon finals between 2006 and 2011, winning a pair of titles in 2008 and 2010. But the Spaniard has since failed to reach the quarter-finals, ousted by players ranked between No. 100-150 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. He lost in the second round in 2012 (l. to No. 100 Lukas Rosol), the first round in 2013 (l. to No. 135 Steve Darcis) and the fourth round last year (l. to No. 144 Nick Kyrgios).

“At the end of the day, I lost,” lamented Nadal. “[But] don’t forget I played five finals here. I don’t know how many players have done that.”

3. Kevin Anderson d. Andy Murray 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(0)/R16/US Open

No one relishes seeing Kevin Anderson’s name opposite theirs on draw day. Like fellow power servers Ivo Karlovic and John Isner, the South African is the quintessential dangerous floater, someone who can make even the most accomplished returner uncomfortable on the court. Though he came into his Round of 16 matchup at the US Open 5-1 against Anderson, Andy Murray wasn’t taking his opponent lightly when he stepped onto the court on September 8.

Murray came into the tournament in good form, having recently won the ATP Masters 1000 title in Montreal. But Anderson was in top form, too. He had won the US Open Series title in Winston-Salem only days before.

Facing a possible straight-sets dismissal, Murray secured the first mini-break of the third set tie-break when Anderson pulled a forehand long for 2-1, before consolidating for 4-1 with an unreturnable serve out wide. He took the set with an ace on his first opportunity for 7-2.

But heading into a third tie-break of the match, it was Anderson who bolted out of the blocks, cracking a forehand service return winner crosscourt to surge to 3-0. He made it 5-0 with an ace down the T, and when Murray missed wide he had six match points. Anderson took the match on his first chance, ripping a forehand at Murray’s feet, and bringing the capacity Louis Armstrong Stadium crowd to theirs.

Seven times Anderson had fallen in the fourth round at the majors. Now he was through to his first Grand Slam quarter-final, having notched his first upset of a Top-10 player at a major with the four-hour, 18-minute victory over the World No. 3.

The 29-year-old called it “one of the best matches of my career,” adding, “To do it at this stage, at this round, to get through to the quarters the first time in a Grand Slam definitely means a lot to me.”

It was a match that haunted Murray, and one that he would revisit on video.

“I was very disappointed with that match. I wanted to learn as much as I could from it,” he said. “I spoke to my team a lot about that.  I don’t watch loads of my own matches, but I watched quite a bit of that one.  I was very disappointed with what I saw. So I wanted to learn from that.  I did, I think, quite quickly.”

Coming Next: The 2 Biggest Grand Slam Upsets of 2015