The World No.3 has started 2022 the same way he finished last, earning ATP Cup victories against Cameron Norrie and Taylor Fritz for Team Germany.
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Alexander Zverev witnessed a season to remember in 2021, picking up crucial wins and titles along the way. He got his hands on the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo and finished the calendar year in style, capturing his second Nitto ATP Finals crown in Turin beating Daniil Medvedev in the final. The World No.3 has started 2022 the same way he finished last, earning ATP Cup victories against Cameron Norrie and Taylor Fritz for Team Germany this week in Sydney. The 24-year-old star caught up with ATPTour.com to discuss on various issues ahead of his final Group C match at the 16-team event.
Asked about the personalities on the team, Zverev, who is a fan of German football clubs Hamburg and Bayern Munich, said “I think Yannick [Hanfmann] is maybe the one who is quietest out of all of us. He’s a very good guy, he’s somebody that gets along with everybody well, one of the nicest guys on Tour. Kevin [Krawietz] is the one that I’m probably best friends with because we have quite a funny and similar personality. We joke around quite a lot and do a lot of stupid things.”
“Tim [Puetz] is a little bit ‘I know better’ on every subject, but he is also probably the smartest one out of all of us. He did go to college, so in that regard he’s very educated. But he also always has to have the last word on everything. And Struffi… Struffi is just in general a nice guy. I think nobody on Tour has anything bad to say about Struffi. You can’t say anything bad about him.”
Speaking about team competition, he said, “Team competitions in tennis are very rare. I think it’s quite a lot of fun to be around those guys and to have the same goal as them, be in the same group and try to achieve the same things.”
When asked which German player he looks up to the most, Zverev replied, “I think the obvious answer would be Boris Becker, and maybe Michael Stich, too. Michael Stich helped me a lot at the beginning of my career, with wild cards in Hamburg, so he helped me a little bit to break through. But in Germany, I think Boris, and Steffi Graf as well, were the two players who were always at the top of everything.”
