Ferrero: To overcome Roger Federer, Nadal or Djokovic, NextGen must...

Former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero says that German youngster Alexander Zverev had too many distractions off the court and was not focused enough on his tennis career which is one of the reasons he has not been able to breakthrough at the Grand Slams.

Ferrero coached Zverev for about eight months in 2017 and 2018 before splitting on bitter terms.

Speaking on the 3iGuales podcast., Ferrero commented, "In order to overcome Federer, Nadal or Djokovic, Zverev and the rest of the guys who come after them must improve off the court: from food to fitness. I trained Zverev for eight months and I noticed that. He used to go back and forth a lot in the same match and that's why I think he couldn't win a grand slam yet. That irregularity leads him to play the fifth set heads or tails."

Zverev has dropped from No. 3 to No. 7 in the world rankings and has struggled to show his best at the Grand Slams - making his first semi-final at a major only at this year's Australian Open in January. The Spaniard commented, "Earning a lot of money when you are young can get you dizzy. At that time, the player's environment and their role are key factors. They have too many distractions off the court - phone calls, social networks, friends who suddenly appear. I watch them fooling around on Instagram and not thinking about tennis as it was in our time. Zverev was, for example, three hours on the court, but he could not perform quality training for an hour and a half. There were protests. Stops. Anger. Distractions. At the time, we collided due to his lack of punctuality and lack of respect for the team members, even though his father helped me a lot."

Ferrero is currently working with 16 year old Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3aORYlV