page_title: Alexander Zverev
section_title: Playing style
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Zverev / Playing style
caption_attribution_description: 2018 Citi Open Tennis
context_page_description: Alexander "Sascha" Zverev is a German professional tennis player. He is the second-youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals, and was a permanent fixture in the top 5 throughout 2018. Zverev was the champion at the 2018 ATP Finals, which had made him the youngest winner at the year-end championship in a decade. He is the only active player outside of the Big Four with three ATP Masters 1000 titles. Zverev has been praised by members of the Big Four as one of their potential successors. Rafael Nadal has called him a "clear possible future No. 1," while Novak Djokovic has said, "Hopefully, he can surpass me." Zverev has won 11 ATP titles in singles and two in doubles.
  Zverev was born into a tennis family. His parents Irina and Alexander Sr. both played professionally for the Soviet Union, and his older brother Mischa is also a professional who has been ranked as high as No. 25 in the world. Zverev is a former world No. 1 junior, and won a junior Grand Slam singles title at the 2014 Australian Open. He had an early breakthrough on the professional tour as well, becoming one of the youngest Challenger title winners in history at the age of 17.
context_section_description: Zverev is an aggressive baseliner. He often stands far back behind the baseline and aims to hit powerful groundstrokes either for winners or to wear down his opponent. Although his height slows him down on the court, it also adds to his reach and gives him the ability to get more balls back in play. Novak Djokovic has commented that "he moves well for his height." Zverev can generate a lot of power with both his backhand and forehand. His backhand in particular is regarded as his strength and one of the best in the game. Zverev uses a semi-open stance and employs a western grip when hitting forehands. He has a continental-eastern grip on his backhand. He can also hit slice backhands that require a low center of gravity, in spite of his height.
  With Zverev's height of 1.98 metres (6 ft 6 in), he can generate big serves at 220 kilometres per hour (140 mph) or faster at sharper angles than shorter players. In spite of his height, however, he is better at returning than serving. The year Zverev first broke into the top 20, he was still not one of the better servers on tour, ranking just 38th in serve rating. This was well behind him ranking 18th in return rating, showing that his return game was much stronger than his serving. By 2018, he had improved in both categories, ranking 19th in serve rating and 8th in return rating. Zverev excels in particular at hitting a high percentage of first serves in, landing 64.2% in 2018. In his return game, he had the fifth highest percentage of first serve points won that year at 32.4%.
  Zverev is an all-court player and does not aim to be better on any surface in particular. He has said, "I feel like I can play on all surfaces. I’ve been to two finals or won tournaments on every single surface. I don’t feel like I have to focus on one... I feel like I have good chances at all of them." Toni Nadal, the uncle and coach of Rafael Nadal, has praised his ability on hard courts in particular, saying, "His best surface is, in my eyes, the hard court, because he moves better than he does on clay." Six of Zverev's first ten titles came on hard courts, while the other four were on clay. As of the end of 2018, he has yet to win a title on grass, but has reached two finals and also defeated Federer on that surface.
  Zverev has the ability to serve-and-volley as well. His older brother Mischa is regarded as the biggest proponent of this playing style on the modern tour. Although Sascha does not employ this technique as often as his brother, he has shown it can be effective in big matches such as the Madrid Masters final against Dominic Thiem, a player who rarely comes to the net. Zverev's volleying technique is regarded as one of his biggest weaknesses.
  Zverev was tall, but skinny and not very muscular when growing up. His fitness trainer Jez Green has focused on making him stronger and set a goal for him to add 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) of muscle each year. Initially, Zverev had difficulty adjusting to this training style on the court, saying, "I had no idea what was going on in my body," and needed to adapt his shot technique as he became more muscular. Eventually, he showed improvement on the court. Green remarked, "He started to become less wobbly. He started to absorb power, so when someone hit hard he could hit the ball back and everything locked into place."
caption: Zverev serving
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