Coaches Corner: How do you play successfully against Alexander Zverev?
Professional tennis coaches see more - which is why we simply ask how to play against the big players in the industry. In part 3 of our series, Lars Uebel , head of TennisBase Zentral in Oberhaching, analyzes Alexander Zverev's game .
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Apr 18, 2020, 06:49 pm
Lars Uebel drove to the US Open 2018 as a coach of Philipp Kohlschreiber - and managed to knock Alexander Zverev out of the tournament with an extremely strong and clever performance on lap three. "As a coach, I often lost to Sascha," says Uebel, the head of TennisBase Zentral in Oberhaching, but immediately ahead. And: "Against top players like Sascha, a lot depends of course on the day and the circumstances."
These are the special strengths of Alexander Zverev
Sascha is one of the best servers in tennis. And gets a lot of free points with his service. If that is the case, he also plays from the baseline much more confidently. If Sascha dictated the rallies from the start, he now plays extremely well on both sides. Sand is certainly Sascha's best topping because he has the most time there. Because of his size, his difficulties come to bear least, which also applies to a slow hard court.
How to play successfully against Alexander Zverev?
So you have to try to defuse your serve. That was extremely important for Kohli in New York 2018: playing many returns in the field. Often coming into the rally. You also have to gamble a bit with the side as a kickback, which Philipp did very well at the time.
On the second serve, the idea was to mix the position: sometimes returning from the very back, but also sometimes directly from the baseline. So it's about creating different images for Sascha, playing different speeds.
You have to get Sascha off the line - because he is very strong there. If he can move on the line and play from both sides, then he can build an enormous amount of force with his size. Kohli managed to generate many different meeting points for Sascha that day, with height and depth. You have to work with the slice - that is still a weakness of Sascha: If he has to work in the place and work very, very deeply. Exactly when it is played very quickly in the forehand and has to make a lot of way. If Sascha has to lift the ball and then comes to the net, the opponent usually still has a good position for a passing ball.
You also have to play very actively against Sascha, try to move him. He also gets problems on really fast rubbers, where he has to adapt quickly.
A few facts and figures about Alexander Zverev (statistics refer to the past 52 weeks)
| Date of birth | Overall tournament wins | Tournament wins 2019 | Aces per match | Return games won | Tiebreaks won |
| 04/20/1997 | 11 | 1 (Geneva) | 10.1 (ATP rank 13) | 24.6% (ATP rank 19) | 58.1% (ATP rank 20) |
Our expert
# IMG2 #