Two brothers at the top of the world, one even winner of the unofficial World Champion title in tennis since Sunday: Germany can be happy about the Zverevs.
Irina Zverev probably knows every inconspicuous corner of North Greenwich, far in the east of London, near the famous O2-Arena. Because when her son Alexander fought for games, sets and matches inside the Entertainment Palace, her mother pursued her usual occupation: she took the little family poodle Lövik out for longer walks, as far away as possible from the venue of the Tennis World Cup. Whenever the son is involved in dramatic duels, the 51-year-old mother urgently needs distraction and distraction.
She can’t stand the “excitement,” says the tennis mother, “I’d better be off. But of course I have no peace.” At some point the mobile phone rings, usually her husband is at the other end, he is then the bearer of the increasingly frequent good news. Just like on Sunday afternoon, when Alexander Zverev senior had the best message yet about Alexander Zverev junior – the message that their son really is the new world champion in men’s tennis.
“It was an incredible moment. Too good to be true,” says Irina Zverev. She then stormed into the mighty hall at a running pace, ran to the Centre Court – and there a picture was captured for eternity: A kiss, a hug between mother and son, and a little cuddle of the champion with Lövik, the mascot of the tennis hiking troupe. Irina Zverev is the discreet boss of this family business, which has been travelling the continents for almost a decade and a half, first with her older son Mischa (31) – and Alexander as Steppke in tow. And then with Misha and Alexander (“Sasha”), the two highly gifted.
“We breathe, drink and eat tennis,” says mother Zverev, who herself was once Russia’s fourth best player – once before emigrating to Germany in the 1990s. Alexander also received hundreds, thousands of tennis lessons from his mother, the technical handwriting is clearly recognizable, the solid training in all strokes. But also the mother’s character: “My wife has always been a great fighter,” says father Zverev (58), the former Russian Davis Cup player. “She didn’t give up a match before the last ball. And now they’re looking at Sasha.” Zverev (21), the new world champion, the first German world champion since Boris Becker, has been a circus child, always on the road with his parents and his older brother. There was hardly any other possibility than to pursue a career in this sport as well.
But Zverev then topped the ambition of all the other family members, he was, as Mama Irina remembers, “infected with tennis from an early age”, and he wasn’t someone who liked losing: “If I played tennis with him or even a parlour game, then I had to let him win at some point. Otherwise the mood would have been broken.” Maybe it has something to do with the fact, the mother smiles, “that I took Sascha to a tennis court for the first time four days after her birth.
The Zverevs are a phenomenon of the tennis world. Because there has never been anything comparable like the Hamburg family in the modern tour business before, two brothers who make their way to the absolute top of the world and occasionally compete against each other at the highest level. And of those the younger one, the exceptionally talented one, is now even world champion. “It’s just crazy what this family has built,” says Boris Becker, the old tennis champion and occasional advisor to Team Zverev.
Mother Irina has always been the heart and soul of the tennis travel company. And father Alexander sr. was finally responsible for giving both sons the finishing touches after the years of development. “He’s the best coach in the world for me,” said World Cup King Alexander Jr. on Sunday, moved. “I owe everything I am to my parents.” However, mother and father had also learned a little more serenity and tolerance than their younger child’s career in professional tennis was serious. Because they had taken the older son Mischa a little too hard to the curb.
Mischa initially benefited from the discipline his father taught him. But later he rather suffered from his father’s regulations and regiment, failed at first because of the pressure of expectations, both family and public. Zverev the Elder had the famous fine touch for all strokes on the Centre Court, but his playing lacked the unconditionality of will, the nervous coolness as well. At mid-20 Mischa, after a series of serious injuries, was almost ready to put the racket aside early and start “a completely different life away from tennis”.
But then something crazy happened. Because the punch line in the development history of this tennis-soul family was that it was the younger brother, of all people, who put the older brother back on the road to success, talking him into good terms again and again. And made sure that he played with new power and the usual amount of brains as strong as hardly ever before.
Page 1: Mother Irina Zverev is the family boss
Page 2: Boris Becker is happy about a German with humor