Alexander Zverev and Roger Federer enjoyed a fantastic relationship. Roger was always there to give his advice to Sascha and eventually, the German ace decided to join Team8, the agency owned by the Swiss sensation. Team8 was grooming Sascha, but after the turbulent 2020, they (predictably) parted ways.
Zverev and Federer together
It was just slightly more than 1 year ago that Roger and Sascha went together to Latin American for a memorable tour. That was also a rather effective PR exercise for Zverev that in that way was strongly linked to Roger to give a rather strong boost to Sascha’s image.
The issues
Back in the days, Sascha used to be highly marketable. The German champion is extremely good looking and he started winning important tournaments when he was very young to be constantly on Centre Courts (and on TV). Everyone has always considered the German as a sure slam champion.
Eventually, things went rapidly south. Sascha started to struggle with his results and he was hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. He parted ways with 2 former world no.1 players (Juan Carlos Ferrero and Ivan Lendl) in horrible terms. Then he had to endure a long legal battle with his former agent Patricio Apey.
The Coronavirus and the issues with his girlfriends
Sascha’s image was horribly tarnished this year when he blatantly breached his pledge to auto isolate after he participated in the Adria Tour as the event recorded many Coronavirus infections. Instead of keeping his promise, he was seen partying with models in the south of France. Later in the year, his former girlfriend Brenda Patea announced that she was pregnant with Sascha’s baby. A few hours later, another former girlfriend, Olya Sharypova, announced to the world that she was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Sascha.
The strong end of the season
The good news from Sascha’s camp is that he had a rather strong season after the tours were reinstated. Zverev was inches from winning the US Open final (he served for the match), he won 2 consecutive ATP250 in Cologne and he reached the final in the ATP1000 in Bercy.
Zverev losing Ferrer and Team8
Zverev announced last August that David Ferrer would have been his coach. However, the Spaniard decided not to continue the relationship with Sascha. David just said that the time wasn’t right, but according to many Ferrer couldn’t stand the issues marring Sascha.
Zverev revealed on social media that he will part ways also with Roger Federer’s Agency Team8. That didn’t come out as a surprise as it seemed almost that the strong link between Sascha and Roger could damage Federer’s image in a way.
The statement
Sascha released the following statement stressing that it was his decision, but many on social media speculated that the push for the split came from Team8.
“What a year 2020 has been, for the whole world and for myself. I reached my first Grand Slam final without my parents and brother being court-side due to them contracting COVID-19.
An almost 2 year long legal dispute with my former agent finally came to a successful resolution, so I have spent a lot of time thinking about my short and long term strategies going forward.
For this reason and because of the ongoing worldwide restrictions, I have decided to go back to the roots and have my family help me with my coaching, as well as Mischa and Sergei Bubka with my management. I want to thank TEAM8 for the great work and tremendous experience, but we both feel that it’s the right decision to have my family take on a bigger role once again.”
Let’s hope that Sascha will found some peace.
Alexander Zverev in 2021
Ranked world no.7, the German played his last match on the 20th of November 2020 when he surrendered to Novak Djokovic 6-3 7-6(4) in the round robin in the Nitto ATP Finals (draw).
Roger Federer in 2021
At the moment ranked no.5, Roger played his last match on the 30th of January 2020 when he surrendered to Novak Djokovic 7-6(1) 6-4 6-3 in the semifinal of the Australian Open (draw).
Alexander Zverev and Roger Federer faced off 7 times. Their actual head to head record is 4-3 for Zverev. Previously, the last time when they fought against each other, Alexander Zverev won 6-3 6-77 6-3 in the quarter in Shanghai (Shanghai Rolex Masters) in October 2019.
In the following video you can watch the highlights.
Alexander Zverev and Roger Federer |
| Embed from Getty Images |
