Alexander Zverev ‘in trouble’ with Grand Slam pursuit, says Mouratoglou
By Chris Myson
Alexander Zverev is struggling to take his game to the next level and Patrick Mouratoglou feels the German needs to make important changes next year.
Alexander Zverev is “in trouble” with his pursuit of a first Grand Slam title, according to Patrick Mouratoglou.
Experienced coach Mouratoglou is currently working with Serena Williams as well as Stefanos Tsitsipas, who like Zverev is bidding to challenge the major tournament dominance of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Zverev has recently completed a lucrative exhibition series of matches against Federer in South America to conclude a 2019 season that saw him unable to make that breakthrough.
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The German did not make the semi-finals in any of the four Grand Slams, his best result being a quarter-final at the French Open, at which stage he was eliminated by Djokovic.
He also could not defend his ATP Finals crown in London at the end of the year, going out at the hands of Dominic Thiem in the last four, before the Austrian lost out to Tsitsipas in the final.
Mouratoglou feels Zverev, now 22-years-old, has not added enough tools to his game to progress further after his initial rapid surge up the ATP world rankings.
He was as high as three in 2017 and still sits comfortably inside the top 10 at number seven, but the lack of progress in those top tournaments is starting to become a concern.
While Mouratoglou described Zverev in trouble, he has not completely lost hope, citing the example of Andy Murray.
Briton Murray made sufficient changes to his game on his way to becoming a three-time Grand Slam champion, having initially struggled to make that key step.
Mouratoglou was speaking to Spiegel in quotes carried by the Express.
"“He climbed fast in the ranking thanks to his qualities,” Mouratoglou said of Alexander Zverev.“But during this time he has not developed any other things necessary to win a Grand Slam.“He has a great base, he moves incredibly well. He is super-cool. But that’s not enough.“And if you do not develop the other things, you are in trouble.“He reminds me of Andy Murray. Murray has long been a fantastic player, but not a Grand Slam winner.“Then he changed some things in his game and became a winner. I think Sascha can do that too. But he needs to evolve.”"
Zverev’s next chance to make a Grand Slam impact will come in the Australian Open, which begins in January.
He had his best finish to date in Melbourne at the start of this year when he reached the fourth round, although he suffered a disappointing straight sets defeat to Milos Raonic at that stage of the competition.
Mouratoglou will of course be helping ATP Finals winner Tsitsipas is the youngster who kicks on at the majors in 2020, with in-form Denis Shapovalov, Alex de Minaur and Jannik Sinner among the other rising names worth watching.
Outside of the big three, Thiem and Daniil Medvedev are more established than some of the younger challengers and have already reached Grand Slam finals.
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They, like Zverev, will hope to be in the mix, with Thiem being a clay-court specialist and Medvedev’s recent record on hard courts looking formidable.