Two talented outsiders aiming
Alexander Zverev ‘The top men still win pretty much every grand slam. It is for one of us young guys to take it away from them’
‘Yes, Ivan Lendl can be bossy sometimes but that’s his job. He is very big on statistical analysis’
Alexander Zverev is not one of those tall men who look embarrassed by their height. Quite the opposite, in fact. Push him onstage with a microphone – as happens every year at the gala dinner on the eve of the Laver Cup – and he will draw himself up to his full 6ft 6in, commanding the room with the wit and authority of an oversized Michael Parkinson.
At 22, Zverev – who will open his Wimbledon campaign today against Jiri Vesely – is blessed with the poise of a much older man. This self-assurance has proved useful recently, for 2019 has been a difficult season to date.
For most of the year, he has been flying solo in a manner that few other top-five players would contemplate.
During the off season, Zverev split with his agent Patricio Apey,
who had represented him since 2012. In the spring, his father and main coach – Alexander Zverev Snr, better known to tennis folk as “Papa” – was hospitalised by an as yet unspecified illness.
Even Zverev’s romantic relationship with Olya Sharypova, a former top-300 junior turned model, was reported to have broken down.
The upshot was that, when Zverev travelled to Barcelona in April as the second seed, his entourage included no coach and no agent, leaving him to organise his own practice sessions and affairs in a way that felt like a throwback to the 1980s.
“I have to be a lawyer, I have to be a manager, I have to be everything right now,” said Zverev at the weekend, as he performed the traditional pre-event tour of television studios.
“Normally you have to go through 10 different people to get to the top players. That’s how it was with me as well, but it’s different now.
“In Barcelona, I didn’t have anyone there,” he added offhandedly. “Yeah, it was OK. I’m a big boy, I can handle it. At that time, I was doing everything. Nobody else [among the leading players] does it. I’m going to be the first one I guess.”
But is it not a hassle, particularly on the management side? “I would rather not do it. But what can
I do?” Appoint a new agent? “I can’t. I legally can’t. I don’t have a choice. What am I gonna do? I am not gonna quit tennis.”
If Zverev wants to break out of his contract with Apey, the normal practice would be to offer compensation. But the deal is not due to expire until the end of 2023, so the sums involved could be hefty, potentially even reaching eight figures.
Zverev has already told Germany’s Tennis Magazine that he plans to take Apey to court, yet a scan of available dates for a five-day civil case in the UK – which is where the case would probably be heard – suggests that the next vacant slot is in October 2020. The Telegraph contacted Apey for comment last night.
At least Zverev’s consultant coach, Ivan Lendl, is now on hand, having missed the clay-court swing because of what his client has called “a strong allergy to bee pollen”. (This came as a surprise to long-time Wimbledon watchers, who imagined grass to be Lendl’s personal Kryptonite.)
Over the weekend, Lendl could be seen out on Aorangi Park, supervising practice in his familiar stonefaced way.
“Yes, Ivan can be bossy sometimes,” acknowledged Zverev, “but that’s his job.
“Of course he is a good coach. He is very big on statistical analysis. That has helped me a lot: it’s a big part of the game now, and I use it for my game plans and preparation. It was particularly useful at the ATP Finals” – the end-of-season tournament that
Zverev won at the 02
Arena in London in November, beating Novak Djokovic to land what was comfortably the biggest title of his career.
This summer, Papa’s familiar and burly figure is missing from Zverev’s Wimbledon entourage. Irina Zvereva – inevitably known as “Mama” – is part of the camp, as is Mischa Zverev, the elder brother who is ranked No119.
But the head of the family remains at home in Hamburg. According to his younger son, this is partly through convalescence and partly a straightforward lifestyle choice. “He’s taking a little bit of time after his illness,” said Zverev. “Also, he’s been doing basically 50 weeks a year with me, for years now, and he is also not getting younger. Right now he is enjoying himself.
“He is really happy not to be here. He is just meeting up with friends that he has not seen for a long time. “He has some free time, he can work in the garden and do normal life things which he can’t do when he’s here.”
Zverev has always been independently minded and mature for his age, particularly by comparison with his contemporaries. And one suspects that this difficult six-month spell has helped him grow up even more.
Even if his results for 2019 have been indifferent to date – featuring one title, one runner-up finish and a quarter-final appearance at the French Open – there is still a sense of a man building towards something big.
“It’s for us to decide whether we’re going to compete with them,” said Zverev on Saturday, when he was asked about the old firm of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
“If we talk about grand slams, they still win pretty much everything. It’s for one of us young guys to take that away a little bit. Maybe this will be the tournament.”