Unable To Reach Top Form Since Career-Threatening Injury, Alexander Zverev Bows Down to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for Their Endurance – ‘Don’t Know How…’

Alexander Zverev has been one of the most promising players on the tennis circuit for a few years now. The German player was ranked as high as the World No. 2 by the ATP and cemented his position in the top 10 ranking for almost six years. However, Zverev’s injury issues, which have cropped up of late, have hampered his progress on the ATP Tour. Particularly, his awful ankle injury at last year’s Roland Garros forced him to skip the entire 2022 season.

During his recovery process, he took inspiration from the struggles of the best players the sport has seen in its illustrious history. It was none other than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. The two legends of the game have been role models to many young tennis players. It is the same case with Zverev as well. While recovering from his gruesome ankle injury, Zverev reminisced about the tough times the two legends had faced in their careers.

Alexander Zverev took inspiration from the resilience of the two legends

To recover from his ankle injury, the young tennis player took inspiration from the injury-record of both Federer and Nadal. According to Eurosport, he said that Federer and Nadal stand out from the rest as they give their best performances after making comebacks from serious injuries. Zverev said, “Rafa and Roger [Federer] are different. They come back from injury and they start winning tournaments immediately. I don’t know how they do that. But they’ve been doing it for 20 years now.”

Zverev had high praise for the resilience of Nadal. Furthermore, he refused to be compared with Nadal. He said, “You can’t compare Rafa to me because Rafa comes back and start winning and not only winning against everyone but beating them 6-0, 6-1, 6-2.”

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After his ankle injury, Zverev was unable to walk for around two months. However, he kept working towards a full recovery throughout last and has been regularly featuring Masters events in 2023.

Zverev believed he could have beaten Nadal at 2022 French Open

The German player had to retire in the semi-finals of the 2022 French Open against Rafael Nadal. When asked whether he would have won the game, the young player strongly believed he would have done it if the injury hadn’t occurred. He said, “For some reason I did. I don’t want to sound arrogant.”

Further talking about the same, he said, “But I felt like I was playing the best tennis that I’ve ever played on that surface. So for some reason, I did I could at least compete with him which I was doing.”

Zverev is looking forward to the first event of the clay court season, the Monte Carlo Masters. He will face off against Alexander Bublik in the first round on Tuesday.

Can Zverev regain his form and compete for the biggest trophies on the ATP Tour this season? Only time will tell.

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