Alexander Zverev finished the season playing some of his best tennis in a couple of years. He finished as the ATP No. 2, his highest year-end ranking. Did he have his share of off-court issues? Sure, but that seems to be past him now and he can focus solely on the sport he plays.
His only coach currently is his father, Alexander Sr., after the younger Zverev split with coach Sergi Bruguera in 2023. Many people have speculated about whether a Zverev and Boris Becker partnership might work well. Becker has been out of coaching since February 2024, but he has had a successful career in coaching, including working with Novak Djokovic.
Becker has had his own off-court problems over recent years. He was jailed in England for not paying taxes, and because of the offense he cannot travel to the UK for tournaments such as Wimbledon. That is Zverev’s main concern in potentially adding Becker to his team. Will the older German be able to coach the younger German at one of the Grand Slams?
Speaking with Tennis Magazine, Zverev said, “I love Boris and I also believe that he has an incredible knowledge of tennis. But I don’t know how he feels about traveling. That’s the only question mark for him. As soon as he has solved and clarified that, we can talk about it. We are always in contact with him and often talk to each other. Now, for Australia, it will stay as it is, and then I will see.”
In separate news, Jessica Pegula has Iga Swiatek’s back. The Pole failed a drug test at the Cincinnati Open in August and was suspended for a month. This caused her to miss three tournaments, including two Masters events, and eventually her year-end No. 1 ranking. Swiatek was found innocent of any intentional wrongdoing, though, by the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
Pegula, for one, believes Swiatek’s plea of innocence.
Speaking at a press event for the Garden Cup recently, Pegula told reporters, “I don’t know, it seems like they (ITIA) investigated it and she had her reasoning. I mean you have to trust that they’re doing their job, that they’re coming to the right conclusion…But how it was explained to me, it seems pretty cut and dried almost – and the explanation made sense.”
There will still be many, including players such as Nick Kyrgios, who believe Swiatek and Jannik Sinner, who failed two drug tests in March of 2024, should still be disciplined even if they did nothing knowingly wrong. That seems unfair, but the bottom line is whether an agency believes what a player is saying to be the truth. At least from a player’s point of view, Pegula believes Swiatek.
