Tennis
Zverev revealed that he wants to play with Kerber in the mix at the Olympics. However, they both have problems
During the Australian Open, Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber said they would like to play together for Germany at the Olympic Games in Paris. They would like to represent their country in the mixed doubles.
During the Australian Open, Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber said they would like to play together for Germany at the Olympic Games in Paris. They would like to represent their country in the mixed doubles.
There are certainly several interesting facts. Twenty-six-year-old Zverev comes from Hamburg, thirty-six-year-old Kerber from Bremen. And Bremen and Hamburg are the so-called city states in Germany, and both big names of world tennis live outside our neighbours.
Zverev, whose father represented the Soviet Union in tennis, lives in Monte Carlo, Kerber’s parents are from Poland, and Kerber also lives in the village of Pusznikovo, where her daughter Laura was born in February 2023 to Franco Bianco, the manager of a sports park with an indoor arena and courts in the spa town of Konigstein im Taunas.
Kerber and Zverev last played mixed doubles together in Sydney at the United Cup mixed team tournament. In the two matches, they won once and lost once. Then doubles specialist Laura Siegemund replaced Kerber in the mix and the German team won the entire United Cup, beating the favoured Poland in the final.
Zverev wants to play with Kerber at the Olympics
But watch out! Zverev and Kerber have yet to qualify for the Olympic mix! The qualifying benchmark for participation in the Olympics is the world ranking, which will certainly not be a problem for Zverev, but could be for Kerber, who has virtually disappeared from the tennis rankings after a 15-month maternity break. Even so, according to Kicker magazine, the star German pair wants to play together at this year’s Paris Olympics!
Zverev already has a gold medal from the Olympics, specifically from 2020, but has never won a Grand Slam, despite playing the final of the US Open and being in the semi-finals of the Australian Open and French Open. Kerber has an Olympic singles silver medal from Rio de Raniero 2016 and has won singles at three Grand Slams – Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open, only the clay court in Paris at the French Open has she never been able to conquer.
But what about Sasha, Anquelike and doubles? ” If you can play singles and concentrate on doubles, go through a good preparation, you can do the mix,” thinks Alexander Zverev. He has won the Tournament of Champions twice in singles, but in men’s doubles he only reached the quarter-finals with his national teammate at the Olympics four years ago. Kerber has rarely entered doubles, but now says that at her age and after her maternity break, doubles could be her stronger discipline.
“The plan is clear, we want to play mixed doubles at the Olympics together,” Zverev told a news conference in Melbourne.
Source: Kicker