“Shockwaves in Tennis: Zverev Loses $8 Million Deal – The Inside Story!”
With the announcement of his split from world No. 7 Alexander Zverev, former Spanish tennis player David Ferrer became the third coach to abruptly quit the German player’s team, after Juan Carlos Ferrero and Ivan Lendl, due to serious off-court concerns raised by former coaches.
“The timing was not right; there was not a specific cause or anything.”
The tennis greats Lendl and Carlos Ferrero also voiced complaints about Zverev’s training schedule and off-court activities after their departures.
“I think he might be a great player someday, but right now he is dealing with some off-court challenges that make it hard for him to develop in a way that aligns with my philosophy,” Lendl stated in 2019.
According coach Carlos Ferrero, who parted ways with Zverev at the beginning of 2018, “let us say it was a way of to be off of the court (that prompted the break),” he said on the Double Bagel Podcast.
“I believe I had different views about what it meant to be a professional off the court—how to eat, rest, and interact with other team members. We had disagreements there, and in the end, we decided it would be best to go on.
Zverev has only made it to one Grand Slam final, where he lost to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open, despite high expectations. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer did not participate in that tournament, while Novak Djokovic famously lost after hitting a ball into a lineswoman.
For the first time, he advanced past the fourth round of the Australian Open the previous year, but ultimately fell to Thiem, the eventual tournament runner-up, in the semifinals.
