It is said frequently in sports that if one wants to be the best, they have to beat the best. But sometimes, to be the best may mean getting advice from the same people who have gotten the better of you.
To be fair, current world No. 3 and 2020 US Open finalist Alexander Zverev has done more than his fair share of winning, and on the biggest stages as well, including reaching his third Grand Slam final at the Australian Open to begin this season. Yet he continues wearing the tag of being the best male player not to win a major on tour after a) his defeat to Jannik Sinner in that final in Melbourne, dropping Zverev to 0-3 in Grand Slam finals, and b) two more disappointing results in the following two Grand Slams: a quarterfinal defeat to Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros after reaching at least the semis in Paris four years running, and then a first-round exit at Wimbledon at the hands of Arthur Rinderknech, the first time the German lost in the opening round of a major since 2019.
Following his Wimbledon defeat, Zverev traveled to, and sought advice from, people who knew him well — and who got the better of the German more often than not: the Nadals.
For 10 days, Zverev trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy, initiated by an invitation from Toni Nadal soon after Sascha’s Wimbledon defeat, and, his time in Mallorca also included sessions with Rafa himself. Zverev’s time with Rafa and Uncle Toni was about gaining an outsider's view on the German’s game from a family that had become something of an insider, given the 11 times Rafa and Zverev had squared off on the tennis court.
“It's about finding ways to beat the best players in the world, right? It's about finding the right patterns, the right training to do that,” Zverev said. “That's why I went to see Uncle Toni and Rafa, because I wanted to see and then hear a new vision of what tennis in their mind looks like and [what] my tennis in their mind looks like.”
Rafa’s key point to Zverev while at the academy was to be bolder in the biggest moments, fitting advice given that all 11 of their matchups as contemporaries came at either a Grand Slam, a Masters 1000, the ATP Tour Finals or in Davis Cup.
“Rafa, for example, he played against me for ten years,” Zverev said. “So now, as a spectator and also as an opponent, he can probably give the best advice anybody else can, because he knows what it's like to be on the court with me.”
Coming up as a teen in the era of the Big Three, Zverev, now 28, is in the throes of trying to break the Grand Slam glass ceiling in the burgeoning era of the Big Two, Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Both have taken down Zverev in Grand Slam finals in the past two years, with Alcaraz triumphing in the 2024 Roland Garros final after being down two-sets-to-one. Despite the recent defeats to the duo, including a semifinal loss to the Spaniard in Cincinnati last week, Zverev is finding that right perspective in continuing to stay positive about his game.
“I think there are certain parts of my game that Carlos and Jannik are doing better than me. There are also parts of my game that I'm doing better than them, also,” Zverev said confidently.
Zverev has regained some of the top form that he reached earlier in the season, buoyed by the visit to Spain and, just before that, a mental health break that he took from Wimbledon, where he admitted he put his racquet down and hung out with friends while also seeking therapy. He reached the semifinals of both Masters 1000 tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati leading up to the tournament, and now is in the same half of the US Open draw as Sinner, with Alcaraz lurking as a potential opponent in the final.
“I would be more than happy to play Jannik in the semis and Carlos in the final here,” Zverev said. “If I achieve my dream, if I achieve the goal that I set for myself in lifting the trophy above my head, then I know that I really deserve it, because I went through the most difficult path that there can be at the moment. So that's totally fine.
“Of course, if all of a sudden they lose first round and second round and I'm playing, I don't know, the world No. 50 in the final, I will sign that paper right now, don't get me wrong,” Zverev continued. “But still, if you beat the best players in the world to win a Grand Slam, you deserve it. That's my mindset, and that's how I think about things.”
A mindset now at least partly shaped by the Nadals.
Now if Zverev were to start shouting “Vamos!” on the court …
