Update June 2026

Alexander Zverev is Germany’s most successful male tennis player since the era of Boris Becker and Michael Stich. His achievements include an Olympic gold medal, a Grand Slam singles title at the French Open, the year-end ATP Finals (twice), and a handful of Masters-1000 titles, all of which helped him to a career-high ranking of two.

Zverev’s career can be broken down into two distinct parts: his rise through the juniors to become the third-best player in the world, and his comeback from the start of 2023 after a horrific ankle injury sustained against Rafael Nadal in a closely fought semi-final at Roland-Garros.

A five-year-old hitting with top players

Tennis was the Zverev family business. Alexander was born in Hamburg in April 1997, but very much into a Russian family. His father, Alexander Sr, played tennis at the highest level in the former Soviet Union, his mother, Irina Zvereva, was known for her brilliant technique, and he grew up watching his older brother, Mischa, becoming a pro. The family emigrated to Germany in 1991 when Mischa was four and was already hitting tennis balls. He soon developed into one of the most promising tennis teenagers in Germany.

Just a day before she gave birth to her second son, Irina hit some balls with Mischa. Later that day, Alexander Sr came back to their Hamburg apartment to tell Mischa about the little brother who had safely arrived, known at home as Sascha. The small boy grew to a height of 1.98m (6ft 6in), and has proved a more successful player than his older brother.

With Mischa on the tennis tour from the age of 15, the younger Zverev was a regular on the tour from five, frequently hitting with the top players. He got his technique from his mother, but his coach was his father, who has remained his coach on the full tour, with occasional periods working with others, such as Juan Carlos Ferrero and Ivan Lendl.

A former world number one junior and Australian Open boys’ champion, Zverev won his first tour-level title at 19, his first Masters-1000 title just days after his 20th birthday, and at 23 he came within two points of his first Grand Slam title when he lost to Dominc Thiem on an 8-6 fifth-set tiebreak in the 2020 US Open final. The following year he won the men’s singles gold medal at the delayed Tokyo Olympics.

From Roland-Garros to hospital

In the 2022 French Open semi-final, Zverev was matching Nadal stroke for stroke in a superb contest. Nadal had won the first set after saving four set points, but Zverev had just levelled the second at 6-6 when he tore three ligaments in his right ankle. He rose to number two in the rankings while he lay in hospital recovering from surgery. That was the end of his 2022 season, and many feared he might never come back.

But he had a very solid 2023, getting back into the world’s top 10. In 2024, he won another two Masters-1000 titles, but more significantly reached the Roland-Garros final, taking him one round further than when he suffered the horrific ankle injury. And in early 2025 he reached his third major final, losing to fellow HEAD ambassador Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open.

Yet the German seemed tagged as ‘the best player never to have won a major title’ – until June 2026 when he finally made the breakthrough on the same court where he suffered the ankle injury. In a French Open in which sustained high temperatures played a significant role, Zverev made it to an all-HEAD final, in which he beat Flavio Cobolli in five sets. The tag was off his shoulders: Sascha was on the Grand Slam roll of honour.

Throughout it all, Zverev has grown as a person, with the family remaining at the heart of everything he does. “The reason it works so well with my dad and my family,” he said, “is that they help a lot on court, and without them I would never be where I am. But off-court I do a lot of stuff the way I like it, especially with friends. Dad knows that I need my freedom and that I have to be on my own from time to time.”

In 2021, Zverev became a father with the birth of his daughter Mayla. Although he is estranged from Mayla’s mother, he credits being a father for becoming a less impetuous person on court. “It’s about taking responsibility for who you are as a person,” he said in Toronto in 2025. “I’m a father now, so I want to be a good example.”

At the age of four, Zverev was diagnosed with diabetes, and he is frequently seen at changes-of-ends monitoring his insulin levels. In 2022, he created the Alexander Zverev Foundation to support children with diabetes and provide medication for those in developing countries with the condition. “I feel like there’s quite a lot of work that I do with my foundation,” he says, “and with my family as well, which can be beneficial and helps people around the world. I would much rather be known and remembered for that than the on-court outbursts I used to have!”

Alexander Zverev is widely known on the tennis tour as Sascha. It’s a traditional Russian pet name for people called Alexander, but he traces it back to his elder brother calling him ‘Sasch’. Asked whether he prefers Alexander, Alex, Sascha, or Sasch, he responds: ‘I’m fine with all of them, whatever you like.” But officially he remains Alexander Zverev, one of the finest tennis players of the 2020s.

Words by Chris Bowers