Alexander Zverev has now given his opinion on whether tennis is better or worse than it was ten years ago.
After all, he is in a fine position to weigh in on such a debate, given he is one of the few who actually played across both eras.
The 28-year-old has been ever-present on the ATP Tour since bursting onto the scene in 2013, and as such, boasts a handful of matches against the stars of the past like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, as well as today’s top players, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
However, it is not the apex of the men’s format that interests him, but rather the 20 or 30 players just behind them, the chasing pack.
Speaking on the Nothing Major podcast, Alexander Zverev spoke openly on the topic.
Alexander Zverev pinpoints the big change tennis has made
Before making a bold claim about whether things have improved or regressed, he first outlined what he thought was different.
Zverev began: “I always say the biggest difference is that tennis has changed. Everybody hits the ball so hard. Everybody kind of has a similar game style nowadays. There is not really the finesse of Roger or the top-spins of Rafa. Yeah, Carlos has that a little bit then everybody else kind of plays the same way. Some just are playing better than others.
“Sinner kind of plays very, very fast – smacking the ball. Fritz smacks the ball. Me, when I play, I smack the ball. Draper, Rublev smack the ball. Everybody just hits the ball as hard as they can.
“I think in that regard, tennis has become a lot faster, but name-wise, I think David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, Stan Wawrinka, Del Potro, those names were big. Those were very, very big names.”
Zverev then made his call: “I think tennis-wise, tennis has improved for sure. I think from 15 to 30, those guys have improved. Before, you rarely saw at a Grand Slam a David Ferrer lose to someone who is 30 in the world. That just did not happen.
“Or Tomas Berdych lose to Damir Dzumhur, who is ranked like 20th in the world, that just didn’t used to happen.
“Whereas I think now Rublev can lose to Cerundolo at the French Open or Tommy Paul can beat Casper Ruud, there’s not that big of a difference between the top 10 guys like how it used to be.”
Alexander Zverev has struggled across both eras
Zverev is part of a really unfortunate generation who have been locked out of Grand Slam title competition throughout their entire careers.
After all, they grew up on tour surrounded by those aforementioned titans of the sport, with Nadal, Federer and Novak Djokovic dominating tennis like few others have before.
It was impossible to dethrone them, and it almost felt like a waiting game before chances would come again.
And yet, even though the Swiss and Spanish superstars have retired, things have become no easier for Zverev and his peers, with Djokovic continuing to dominate before Sinner and Alcaraz have emerged to create their own duopoly.
These are two impossibly difficult periods in men’s tennis to compete in, with the German unfortunate enough to have competed across both. In an effort to take that next step, Zverev has even begun working with Toni Nadal, publicly trying to convince him to become his long-term coach.
He is good enough to win a major title, but will have nothing given to him in his conquest for ultimate glory.
