ZVEREV COMMITS TO HEAD FOR THE NEXT DECADE

World No 6 extends his relationship with his racquet provider with new multi-year deal

Alexander Zverev has committed his future to HEAD, agreeing a new contract that will ensure that he plays with a HEAD racquet for the foreseeable future.

The 26-year-old German, currently sixth in the ATP world rankings, signed his contract with the Austria-based sports manufacturer, extending his partnership with the racquet provider he has had throughout his professional career.

Having effectively grown up on the global tennis tour thanks to his brother Mischa – also a HEAD player – turning professional when Alexander was just five, the younger Zverev has played with HEAD since his junior days. In 2019, HEAD launched the Gravity range of racquets, which Zverev helped develop and which he endorses today.

Ottmar Barbian, executive vice-president of HEAD’s racquet sports division, said, “We are especially pleased to have secured Alexander’s further commitment to HEAD at this time in his career, when he is finally enjoying the fruits of his highly professional dedication to returning to the top of men’s tennis after the horrible ankle injury he suffered 16 months ago. We are inspired by the way he has overcome a setback that might have ended the career of less determined players, and we are honoured that he considers our racquets and our professionalism the right fit for his own quest to get to the very top.”

Zverev was recruited by the ‘Team HEAD’ programme when he was a junior in Hamburg. The programme allows HEAD’s local units to scout and build strong relationships with promising young players, often giving them equipment that they might not otherwise be able to afford.

Zverev was born in Hamburg and is German of Russian extraction. His father Alexander Sr played top-level tennis in the former Soviet Union, and his brother Mischa was born in Russia, but the family had moved to Germany by the time Alexander was born in 1997.

He was the world’s top junior in 2014, when he won the Australian Open boys singles. He won his first tour-level title at 19, his first Masters-1000 at 20, and the year-ending ATP Finals at 21. At 23 he came within two points of winning the US Open, but lost the 2020 final on a fifth-set tiebreak. A year later he won the gold medal at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, and climbed to a career-high ranking of two after reaching the semi-finals at Roland-Garros in 2022.