Alexander Zverev is already overdue for Grand Slam success. Although he is still just 21 years old, he has already won an incredible three Masters 1000 titles and has finished runner-up at two other Masters events. The story is a much different one, however, at slams.
In 11 career appearances in the main draws of majors, Zverev has reached a fourth round only once–at Wimbledon last summer, when he beat no one ranked better than No. 64 along the way. He has advanced to third rounds on just three other occasions. Amazingly, his best-ever win at a major is over world No. 57 Robin Haase in round one of the 2017 Australian Open.
In total, the German is a disappointing 14-11 at slams. That is a 56.0 winning percentage. By comparison, he is an incredible 47-20 at Masters 1000s. That is 70. 1 winning percentage. Those are especially shocking numbers given that it is much easier to win a greater percentage of matches at slams than is it at Masters, as the former generally feature dozens of players ranked outside the top 75 or even outside the top 100. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Stan Wawrinka–among many other examples–have all comfortably won a greater percentage of matches at slams than at Masters.
Nadal, who edged Zverev 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 in the Rome final last weekend, is not ready to press the panic button for Zverev. In fact, he ended his post-match press conference by suggesting to give the world No. 3 two more years worth of Grand Slam appearances before alarm bells should be sounded. The Spaniard also predicted–and basically guaranteed–that such bells will not be necessary.
“If he’s not playing well in Grand Slams during the next two years, you will–you can come back to me and tell me, ‘you know anything about tennis,'” the Spaniard said. “But, I believe that (it’s) gonna be a different story. So, that’s my feeling.
“Tennis is tennis. It doesn’t matter (if it’s) best of three (or) best of five. And playing best of five is a big advantage for the best players, and Sascha is one of the best players. So it’s always a big advantage to him; that’s my feeling. If [it happens] that Sascha is not doing great results in the next year in Grand Slams, you can come back to me and say, ‘you were wrong.’ But, I believe I will not.”
[polldaddy poll=10011683]
should be less than 2 years!
I think Rafa is right….Zv WILL be winning a Major in LESS than two years….he’s got a great work ethic and great heart!.
Sasha is 21. Roger Federer’s slam results at that age were abyssmal. But once he won Wimbledon the flood gates opened.
Two years is about right. By then Fedal and Djoko will be well past not only their prime but their slam winning days!
I’ve a feeling Sasha plays like a Djoko, ie he’s good on any surface and can win or even dominate on all surfaces. The other youngsters may not dominate as most of them have weaknesses on certain surfaces.