Wimbledon and Alexander Zverev – that hasn’t really worked well together so far. This year things should go better for the tennis Olympic champion from Hamburg. Also because the pressure is a little lower. It starts for him on Tuesday.
Before the trip to Wimbledon, Alexander Zverev briefly went to the mountains. In the Tyrolean Alps, the 26-year-old hit a few balls with his brother Mischa on a mountain meadow, after which an event for his foundation was on the agenda. Zverev flew over the mountain peaks in a helicopter before heading to London in the middle of the week. And there, too, the German number one finally wants to aim high.
Little success at Wimbledon so far
So far, Zverev has never made it past the round of 16 in the classic lawn. He was completely absent from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club last year after sustaining a serious foot injury in the French Open semi-finals that kept him out of action for the rest of the year. “I missed this place,” said Zverev on Thursday after the first training session in London.
Zverev does not have to defend any points until the end of the year
After a mixed start to the season as a result of his serious injury, Zverev seems to have regained his rhythm and self-confidence. Semi-finals at the French Open, semi-finals in Halle, Westphalia – Zverev was able to avert the feared crash in the world rankings and now has no more points to defend in the rankings for the rest of the year. So a lot seems possible for the German number one, who is ranked 19th at Wimbledon.
At the start, Zverev will have to deal with the Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer on Tuesday – a solvable task. In the round of 16 there could be a duel with the Spanish world number one Carlos Alcaraz from Spain, as the draw on Friday showed.
“I think everything is very fine.”
— Alexander Zverev
“I’m currently very satisfied with my tennis level. I think I’m playing well,” said Zverev in the run-up to the third Grand Slam tournament of the season. “In general, in terms of my tennis game, in terms of my shots, in terms of my movement, I find that everything is very fine.”
Tennis legend Boris Becker, who won Wimbledon three times and nowhere else in the tennis world felt as comfortable as in his former adopted home of London, has confidence in Zverev at Wimbledon this year. “He has the self-confidence again that he belongs to the top of the world,” said Becker in the Eurosport podcast “Das Gelbe vom Ball”. “He has now laid the foundation for turning an average year into a good to very good year.”
This topic in the program:
NDR 2 Sports | 04.07.2023 | 11:03 p.m
