page_title: Alexander Zverev
section_title: Junior career
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Zverev / Junior career
caption_attribution_description: Runner-up in this year's French Open juniors - practising with Richard Gasquet at the Boodles, Stoke Park, 2013.
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 a former world No. 1 junior. He entered his first event on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior circuit in early 2011 when he was 13. Near the beginning of 2012, Zverev won his first ITF title at the Fujairah Junior Championships, a low-level Grade 4 tournament in the United Arab Emirates. He would pick up a lower level Grade 5 title at the Oman International Junior 2 a few weeks later, which led him to begin competing in higher-level events shortly before his 15th birthday. He did not have much success at tournaments that were Grade 2 and above until the following year when he reached back-to-back doubles finals with Spencer Papa at the Grade A Copa Gerdau and the Grade 1 USTA International Spring Championships.
  Zverev's early-season success in doubles proved to be the precursor of a major improvement in singles as well. During the European clay court season, he won his first Grade 1 title over Andrey Rublev at the Open International Junior de Beaulieu-sur-Mer. He followed up that performance with his first Grade A title at the Trofeo Bonfiglio a month later, becoming the youngest boys' singles champion in the tournament's history. He also finished runner-up at the 2013 French Open to Christian Garín. Zverev had some grass court success as well, finishing runner-up to Nick Kyrgios at the Junior International Roehampton. However, he needed to retire at Wimbledon due to a shoulder injury. Zverev came close to reaching another Grand Slam boys' singles final at the 2013 Junior US Open, but was defeated by the eventual champion Borna Ćorić in the semifinals. This success was enough for him to take over the No. 1 ranking in late October. Before the end of the season, Zverev also represented Germany in the Junior Fed Cup, leading them to a fourth-place finish. His last tournament of the year was the Grade A Orange Bowl, where he was defeated by Stefan Kozlov in the semifinals. As the top-ranked junior at the end of the season, he was named the ITF Junior World Champion, becoming the youngest boys' champion since Donald Young in 2005.
  Zverev played just two tournaments in 2014, both in Australia in January. He won the singles events at both tournaments, the first of which came against Australian Omar Jasika at the Traralgon Junior International. At the Australian Open, he was able to defeat Kozlov, who was seeded second, to finish his junior career with a first Grand Slam title.
caption: Zverev practising at the 2013 Boodles Challenge
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