Alexander Zverev is his own worst enemy at Grand Slams says former champion and fellow compatriot Boris Becker.
Zverev, who is ranked world number five, has won 15 ATP career titles including four Masters events and the ATP Finals, but when it comes to Grand Slams, he has lacked consistency.
In the four years since the 24-year-old reached the top ten, he has only reached two Grand Slam semi-finals and one final and recently lost in the fourth round of Wimbledon to young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.
In fact the German has failed to win any of his 10 Grand Slam encounters with opponents ranked in the top 10 and fellow countryman Becker says this is due to continually making the same errors.
“I commentated on the match in the round of 16 between Zverev and Auger-Aliassime,’ Becker told Eurosport’s The Yellow from the Ball podcast.
“It was a roller coaster ride. Partly world class, partly not at all good.
“He [Zverev] still makes the same mistakes, that’s the annoying thing. He fails every time because of the same mistakes and weaknesses. What the opponent is called, that doesn’t really matter.
“Zverev fails because of Zverev and not because of the opponent. That must be annoying him. He has a different claim and wants to win Grand Slams.”
Becker believes that Zverev is one of the leading players of the younger generation and he needs to be braver and more attacking in his game-play against the better opponents.
“He is a leader among the younger generation and doesn’t have to hide behind anyone. But he has to fix the same mistakes and that’s the annoying thing that it repeats from Grand Slam to Grand Slam,” said Becker.
“In critical phases he remains too passive, he stands behind the baseline and hopes that the opponent will make a mistake. That’s enough against the worse-placed players, but the better ones don’t make a mistake.”
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