Alexander Zverev has had a fairly disappointing season so far, considering that he had made clear progress in the latter part of 2024 and everyone thought he was close to his goal of finally winning a Grand Slam title.
The German ace started the year well by reaching the final at the Australian Open with just the right amount of authority, but his certainties crumbled against Jannik Sinner who literally demolished him on the iconic Rod Laver Arena.
It is no secret that that clear loss in the Happy Slam has affected Sascha's mind a lot, who has struggled to play his best tennis in the following months and has suffered a series of surprising defeats receiving a lot of criticism. He had a chance to rise to the top of the ATP rankings due to Jannik's three-month ban, but his results were so disastrous during the spring that that goal vanished.
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Sascha has been criticized for playing passively
The former world number 2 did not shine in Paris, London and New York, trying to ask for help from Toni Nadal who gave him some advice to improve his game and his attitude. Numerous experts and former players have often criticized the champion from Hamburg for his too passive play, which is his main weakness in the decisive moments of matches. He is trying to improve in this aspect and the last tournaments of this season will be fundamental to allow Sascha to regain confidence.
After Zverev's win over Italian ace Lorenzo Sonego at the Beijing ATP 500, former British star Naomi Broady noticed something different about Alexander's approach: I dont know, I dont know if hed even want us to say that, I think hed sort of say the old Zverev was good enough. But its the smallest margin of change that will have the biggest impact on his game.
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Even his ability to move his court position up tighter to that baseline to take the dropshot that was so successful for Sonego at the start of the match, away from him. But that was certainly the direction that we want to see him moving in, the extra aggression.
