Paul Annacone - "Alexander Zverev must find faith in himself"
The experts are also concerned with Alexander Zverev's current problems in connecting to the achievements of previous years.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: May 21, 2019, 10:27 am
Paul Annacone, of course, immediately recognizes an outstanding tennis player: after his active career, the former professional coached two players, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, who dominated the ATP tour for long stretches. So you can trust Annacone's judgment about Alexander Zverev's current situation. The bottom line: everything is half as wild.
"Right now, Zverev is in one of those phases where he seems a little lost," said Annacone in a recent interview. "It is 90 percent mental." Zverev was not suddenly a bad player. But now it will become clear how the Hamburg native will come out of his crisis.
Alexander Zverev: Rafael Nadal showed the way
"You saw his attitude at the recent press conferences: Zverev is disappointed, he's frustrated, there are a lot of negatives around him," Annacone continued. In this situation, it was not so easy to play on the usual level again. Zverev is trying this week in Geneva, where he meets Ernests Gulbis this Tuesday. "He needs to restore faith in himself and do what made him one of the top five players in the world," concluded Annacone.
In a press conference after winning the title at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome, Rafael Nadal pre-tested what such a process could look like: Negative influences don't stand a chance, train with joy, even if it doesn't go like this from time to time. After all, it also took the Spanish grandmaster until mid-May to finally win the first tournament in 2019.