Opportunity Breeds Success For Zverev

Opportunity is multiplied the more you are exposed to it.

In the 2015 season, Alexander Zverev played just 5,166 points on tour. That more than doubled to 11,156 this season, creating opportunities from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he won his first ATP World Tour title, to Halle and Nice, where he reached the final.

More than double the amount of points played naturally filtered down to more than double the amount of points won, rising from 2,507 in 2015 to 5,683. His season-ending position in the Emirates ATP Rankings skyrocketed from 85 in 2015 to 24 in 2016, with a season-high of 20 in October 2016.

Double the points played. Double the points won, and more than double the match time – 3,509 minutes in 2015 to 7,688 minutes in 2016.  But that does not tell the whole story…

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis uncovered that Zverev actually lost more points than he won in securing his Top 100 ranking in 2015, winning just 48.5 per cent of points played. This year, storming into the Top 25 in the world, that percentage was bumped up only to 50.9 per cent.

He won just 2.4 percentage points more in 2015 than 2016 – just two and a half more points out of every hundred – to become one of the hottest players on tour.

Zverev, 19, from Hamburg, Germany, is 6,6”, and you would naturally assume the serving side of equation is his strong suite, but that’s not necessarily the case. In 2016, Zverev finished 38th best in the ATP Stats LEADERBOARD Serve Leaders category, but a much higher 18th in the Return Leaders.

Zverev won just four matches on tour in 2014, 14 in 2015, and 44 in 2016. His progression points to a 50+ wins season in 2017, and a coveted spot somewhere in the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Alexander Zverev 2015-16 Improvement