It’s a long-standing discussion: Does tennis star Alexander Zverev (28) need a new coach?
One of his strongest supporters is the tennis icon Boris Becker (57). After Hamburger was eliminated from the preliminary round in Tennis World Cup in Turin said the six-time Grand Slam champion as a Sky pundit: “No coach would dare go into the environment of father, brother, mother.”
Alexander Zverev (right) with father and coach Alexander senior at the Australian Open in January
Explosion! What a statement! What does the previous number 1 mean?
This is how the Zverev family works: Father Alexander senior (65) is a coach, brother Mischa (38) is a manager, and mother Irina (58) is a good person in the background who, together with her friend Sophia Thomalla (36), supports her son.
Zverev is a family man and always wants his father and mother by his side. Nearly five years ago he handed over its management to the family. Regarding his father as a coach, Zverev constantly emphasized: “My father will always be my main coach.”
Becker may have meant that other coaches had a hard time when their fathers acted as over-the-top coaches in the background and were even on the field most of the time. He himself offered help several times and could imagine working as a coach for the world number 3. But the 2021 Olympic champion never wanted to.
Ivan Lendl (65), Juan Carlos Ferrero (45) and Sergi Bruguera (54) left after a short time, for different reasons. David Ferrer (43) wants to return to his family during Corona. Collaboration with Toni Nadal (64) has not yet materialized.
Zverev’s team after Masters victory in Paris 2024: Alexander Zverev in front, back from left: brother Mischa, mother Irina, fitness trainer Jez Green, girlfriend Sophia Thomalla, former physiotherapist Christoph Seiler, father Alexander senior and sparring partner Michail Ledovskich
All because of dad? Becker already demanded in June: “At some point you need new voices and a new environment. In football, coaches usually don’t stay at a club for ten years.”
But it is unlikely that Zverev will listen to him. Zverev will ponder whether he will speak again to Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni about a coaching job, or whether he will continue to make occasional visits to Nadal’s academy in Mallorca, on his holiday in the Maldives from late November.
