“No new coach dares”
Boris Becker follows up against Alexander Zverev
November 16, 2025 – 9:49 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
Germany’s best tennis player reacted irritably to the three-time Wimbledon champion’s words. Now Boris Becker speaks out again – and advises Zverev to make drastic changes.
After his criticism of Alexander Zverev after his preliminary round exit at the ATP Finals, Boris Becker once again commented on Germany’s best tennis player – and suggested that Zverev make a change in his environment. “There’s also the question of a new coach,” Becker said on Sky on Saturday evening. “I thought the idea with Toni Nadal was very good,” the 58-year-old recalled that Zverev in the summer after the disappointing first round exit at Wimbledon trained in Rafael Nadal’s academy in Mallorca and also worked with his uncle Toni. However, there was no long-term collaboration.
Instead, Zverev continues to be regretted primarily by father Alexander senior and brother Mischa, as has been the case for years. And that’s exactly the difficulty, according to Becker: “No new coach dares to go into the father-brother-mother environment. That’s the next problem.”
Becker diagnosed Zverev with a “mental block” after his 4:6, 6:7 (4:7) in the decisive preliminary round game against Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime on Friday. The 28-year-old was “almost totally tense”. “He couldn’t handle the pressure, the expectations.” Zverev himself reacted rather irritably to the criticism on Friday: “If that’s his opinion. To be honest, I’m tired of his comments,” he replied to a journalist’s question at the press conference after the match.
Becker now emphasized that he did not hold the world number three’s reaction against him: “If I took seriously everything I said at a press conference immediately after a match, then forget it.” What’s more: “He is of course highly emotional, and I think the question from the journalist was also provocative; he left out all the before and after.”
Now his closest confidants are asked to rebuild Zverev: “You can address the environment. Of course he is close with his family, of course, he also has a little daughter. They are now required to raise Sascha back up.”