With his criticism of Alexander Zverev after he ended in Roland Garros, Boris Becker had caused a sensation. In the native of Hamburg, the suggestions for improvement and hard words from the tennis icon were not well received. Now the 57-year-old was more conciliatory tones.
“I’m on his side. I want him to win,” he said when a podcast episode with the former tennis player Andrea Petkovic on the sidelines of the women’s tournament in Bad Homburg. “They are just improvement options or hints.”
As a TV expert for “Eurosport”, Becker had advised the 28-year-old to separate from his father as a coach and the usual environment in the quarter-finals of Paris against Novak Djokovic. Number three in the tennis world rankings had clearly countered this advice at the Rasmurnier in Stuttgart.
Zverev “by far the best German”
“I think if I go well with me, I always do everything right. And if things go badly, everyone is always very, very smart. Unfortunately, Boris is part of it,” Zverev said two weeks ago. He was “very surprised”, he added: “He didn’t write to me. No contact, nothing at all.”
According to Becker, his criticism of Zverev is whining at a high level anyway. “He does almost everything right. I am convinced that he can become the number one in the world. I am convinced that he can win a Grand Slam,” said three-time Wimbledon champion: “It is by far the best German. That’s why I do this. I see the potential. I see the chance.”
Video: Zverev cheers in Halle so beautifully
With the Hamburg, he is “always in good dialogue. I don’t always have to think in a good partnership,” said Becker, who believes that something can also work for the German on the unpopular lawn in London: “Basically, it is in a dazzling form. This is more than impressive.”
At the classic in Wimbledon starting on Monday, however, Zverev has never passed the round of 16.