Bill Simons
WIMBLEDON
SASCHA ZVEREV – ‘I FEEL VERY, VERY ALONE AND VERY LONELY:’ Tennis has seen many emotional press conferences. After his seven-month sabbatical in 1986, John McEnroe went into a long, deep-dive and very public reflection about his psyche. A teary Jennifer Capriati broke down at the US Open. Time and again Naomi Osaka has been overcome.
But rarely has there been a more raw, open and poignant press conference than Alexander Zverev’s presser Tuesday night.
Sascha spoke of his loneliness on and off-court, his lack of any joy in life and how, when he wakes up in the morning, he has no motivation. Never mind that he’s one of the game’s greatest players, a German super star, and has won more than $53.6 million in career prize money.
He’s at rock bottom and doesn’t know what to do to get out of his deep hole. But at least he knows he has to do something. He stated the obvious, saying, “I’ve been through a lot of difficulties in the media. I’ve been through a lot of difficulties in life generally.”
No kidding.
Almost a decade ago, Sascha emerged on tour as the next big thing. With his booming serve, fabulous backhand and imposing 6’ 6” height, he was seen as a real threat to the Big 3. The German came within two points of winning the 2020 US Open and rose to No. 2. But there were always clouds.
It wasn’t just that he’s had diabetes since childhood, that he’s never quite figured out his forehand, or that a crunch time he often wilts. His coaching, largely by his Russian dad, never seemed to have really gelled. On court, there have been problematic spats and meltdowns. Plus against Rafa, at the 2022 French Open, Sascha suffered the most gruesome ankle injury we’ve ever seen.
And there were the deeply troubling accusations, two of them, of intense domestic abuse. Fans were stunned, protests emerged in stadiums. Yes, we need to quickly note that both the ATP and a German court essentially found no wrongdoing. Yet Sascha’s handling of it all has been criticized.
After German authorities let him off with a gentle slap on the wrist, Sascha bristled in his subsequent press conference, snapping at those who dared to bring up the topic. He said, “I know what I did and what I didn’t do.” But he was never open enough or accountable to his public. He never told us his truth – “Okay guys, this is what I can tell you about what happened.” Plus he sued writer Ben Rothenberg, who wrote about his alleged domestic violence episodes.
To his credit, Sascha has long been popular in the locker room and has excelled on court: Olympic Gold, 22 titles, including two ATP Championships, and three Slam finals. It’s long been said that he’s the best active player to never win a Slam.
But this year has been a challenge. Despite being up by two sets in the Australian Open final, he lost to Jannik Sinner. He was schooled by Novak Djokovic in the French Open semis, and Tuesday fell in the first round to the 29-year-old Arthur Rinderknech, ranked No. 42, who’d only won one other Wimbledon match in his career. During the match, John McEnroe said, “Zverev plays not to lose. That has got him a long way…But it’s not enough against the best of the best. And if he wants to beat them he’s got to step up.”
But after his loss Sascha was very down. Looking forlorn and at a loss, he was sullen and rather desperate as he spoke to Wimbledon reporters in what is called the Media Theater.
And theater there was. Searching and adrift, it seemed as if Sascha had no one to talk to but us reporters.
He described the void in his life: “It’s a feeling that you’re going to bed and you’re just not really motivated for the next day. You don’t really feel like waking up and going to work.
“It’s funny,” he confided, “I feel very alone out there at times. I struggle mentally. I’ve been saying that since after the Australian Open…[I] just don’t know. I’m trying to find ways to…get out of this hole I keep kind of finding myself back in…I feel quite alone in life at the moment.
“But I think I’ll have answers by [the August tournament in] Canada…It’s difficult to find joy outside the tennis court…I just feel generally very, very alone and very lonely. I don’t know. Just never felt that way before. I don’t have the answers right now.
“I don’t think tennis is the problem right now…It’s something else that I have to find within me at the moment…I don’t have the answers right now. I have a month until Canada. Yeah, we’ll see what happens…but something within me has to change, which is not necessarily…a forehand or backhand.”
Inside Tennis then thanked Sascha for being open and for confiding. And we asked him how he was going to address his feelings, and whether he’d consider therapy. “Yeah, maybe,” he replied. “Maybe for the first time in my life I’ll probably need it…I’ve never felt this empty before. Just lacking joy in everything I do.
“Even when I’m winning, like in Stuttgart or Halle, it’s not like the feeling I used to get where I was happy, over the moon. And I felt motivated to keep going. It’s just not there right now.”
It was odd to see that such a macho fellow now seemed so vulnerable. And it was counterintuitive that a man who’d been suspected of doing such horrid things to his girlfriends was now so sympathetic.
Rafa Nadal once suggested, “My job is to find himself.” Last night Alexander Zverev said, “I have to solve it myself. I have to solve my issues.”
COCO TO THE WORLD – ‘LOSING SUCKS:’ After athletes suffer devastating losses, reporters can get carried away. One example: In 1999 after the No. 1 Martina Hingis had been crushed in the French Open final, she promptly fell in the first round at Wimbledon to the virtually unknown Croatian, No. 129 Jelena Dokic.
The shock defeat prompted an outlandish claim. Ian Woolridge wrote that, “The sheer enormity, the staggering impossibility…This hard-to-ignore defeat heaps humiliation on the shame she already felt.”
Coco Gauff’s teary opening-round match to Dayana Yastremski was hardly the same. Still, Wimbledon was stunned. After all, Coco had just taken down world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to claim the French title. Her most fervent backers were hoping she’d become the first player since Serena in 2015 to win the Channel Slam – back-to-back majors in Paris and London. Or at least, she’d take advantage of the lessons she’d learned at Roland Garros and improve on her best-ever Wimbledon performance – reaching the quarters.
But it was not meant to be. Yastremska is only No. 42 and, in three matches, had never beaten Gauff. But she’s a tough matchup for Coco. In one set this May in Madrid, the Ukrainian smacked the American 6-0. Plus, the match here was moved to Court One, where it would be played under a roof that would help big-blasting Dayana.
More to the point, Yastremska unleashed her first-strike, “big babe” tennis to take it to Gauff. She created angles, her backhand was blistering. She ran Coco to the corners. The American couldn’t gain any rhythm, and again we saw Coco’s curse: the haunting double faults that often undermine her game.
In Paris, Coco played superb tiebreaks. In the opening set tiebreak here, she was battered by Dayana’s power. Her second serve was under siege. After one, broadcaster Rupert Bell quipped, “It was 90 mph, but it said, ‘hit me.’’’ Twice Coco double faulted. All was lost. Coco-mania in London again fizzled. Her numbers were dreary: nine double faults, 29 unforced errors and just six winners. She fell meekly, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
Wimbledon was the site of Coco’s great coming-out triumph. As a fearless, free-hitting 15-year old, she shocked Venus Williams in the first round in 2019. Now the hunter had become the hunted. “I was really on fire,” gushed Yastremska. “Playing against Coco, it is something special.”
Inside Tennis pointed out to Coco that she often has a big-picture overview. “Many feel that even though you are still a young person, one of your strengths is you really put things in perspective.” But the French Open champ was in no mood to sugarcoat her sting. She confided that after the match she was struggling in the locker room. “Everyone is going to tell me, ‘You did well at Roland Garros, don’t be so upset.'” Then, as tears began to flow, Coco spoke her simple truth: “I don’t really like losing…Yeah, [it] definitely sucks.”
AMERICA WATCH: American winners today included Madison Keys, Amanda Anisimova and Brandon Nakashima, who will next play Reilly Opelka. But Frances Tiafoe lost to Brit Cam Norrie, Learner Tien fell to Chilean Nicolas Jarry who will next play a fellow South American, the Brazilian sensation Joao Fonseca, who beat California’s Jenson Brooksby.
TO EACH HIS OWN: To gain great insights or to heal their souls, people head off to all kinds of sites: the Himalayas, Jerusalem, Lourdes or Mecca. But in March, Alexander Bublik, the ATP’s quirkiest free-thinker, headed to Vegas for three days to turn his tennis life around.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I love playing on grass. I think this year we are friends.” – Dayana Yastremska
