Becker wrote his career off. But Zverev proves his high quality and won a valuable scalp at the ATP Finals!

German tennis player Alexander Zverev suffered a complicated injury and his return to the top rankings was no longer believed by many tennis experts. Why did Becker express his distrust of him some time ago and how did Zverev enter the ATP Finals?

Alexander Zverev is definitely a tennis player around whom interesting stories abound. A year ago, he was confident in his match against Nadal where he played an even battle with him in his home environment. But he got injured at the end of the second set and his promising career got a crack.

The German tennis player has made no secret of his determination to return to the top rankings and this year he is gradually working towards his goal. Yet he has received expressions of disbelief from multiple quarters.

One of the louder ones came from his compatriot Boris Becker. He didn’t see the necessary progression in the nearly two-meter tennis player for the Hamburg native to keep up with the younger tennis players. He cited Carlos Alcaraz as an example.

Actions instead of words

Not that Zverev hasn’t addressed this kind of criticism in words, but the best answer is his results on the tennis courts.

The grass hasn’t been to Zverev’s liking this year, but the following tennis event in Hamburg was about something else. On home courts, the German tennis player pulled it out and won another tournament triumph after less than two years.

The Olympic champion did not stop there, however, and brought back another triumph from Chengdu, China. These two triumphs were a decisive contribution to the player’s ATP account and Zverev qualified for the ATP Finals.

And he is no rookie at the final event. He has already managed to win the Nitto ATP Finals twice. He triumphed among the top eight tennis players of the season in 2018 and 2021.

Attack for a third triumph

At this year’s ATP Finals, Zverev started the best he could. Despite losing the first set, he eventually came through to win against the world number two. That is Alcaraz, whom Becker used as an example in the question of tennis players better than Zverev.

The German tennis player served superbly, lost his serve only once in the whole match and gave the ultimate proof of quality.

In fact, when he served for the win in his opening game, Alcaraz worked a break point. The 26-year-old Zverev, however, quickly won the game, the set and the match thanks to three great serves.

But there was much more to see during this duel. For example, this Zverev backhand is worth mentioning.

Finally ..

There’s a lot going on around Zverev. Nevertheless, the German tennis player is able to focus on the tennis side of things and after a difficult injury, his performance has kicked into high gear.

The next two matches in Turin will be a big challenge for him. He has almost exclusively lost to Russians Medvedev and Rubljov this year.

Source: ATP, Tennisnet