Barbara Rittner comments on the coaching situation at Alexander Zverev: “Why doesn’t he ask Boris Becker?”

The list of Alexander Zverev’s coaches since 2017 is extremely prominent. Juan-Carlos Ferrero, Ivan Lendl, David Ferrer and most recently Sergi Bruguera – you can’t say that the man from Hamburg hasn’t tried a lot.

Neither coach reached the two-year mark. Father Alexander Zverev senior was, is and remains the most important coach in the Zverev cosmos.

“The question is whether it is right to stay in the comfort zone?” asks the national coach Barbara Rittner at Eurosport. “I’m not a fan of it and I’m not a fan of getting input from outside. Someone who is independent, doesn’t mince words, says uncomfortable things,” said the 50-year-old.

It’s not about replacing your father. “Daddy remains the number one coach, there’s no question about that. He shouldn’t be ousted.” Rather, the goal must be to set up something “communal” in the coaching position. “But that seems difficult,” believes Rittner.

Rittner: Why not Becker as a mentor for Zverev?

The former top 25 player hints that she can well imagine seeing Boris Becker alongside the 26-year-old. “A certain number of weeks as a mentor in the background” would help, says Rittner. “The two get along so well, you can see that at the Davis Cup.”

Becker and Zverev are friends, and the duo has already worked together on occasion. “I always liked the work we did together, at the Davis Cup, at the ATP Cup,” said Zverev more than two years ago in an interview with “RTL”/”ntv”.

At that time, a commitment was not up for debate, also because Becker had previously explained that coaching was “a full-time job”, “then a lot of things don’t work anymore”. This is generally the case, no matter which player you train.

At the current French Open, “it’s not about me, it’s about Sascha,” said Germany’s tennis legend at Eurosport. At the time, however, Zverev also emphasized that he would “not rule out anything in the future”. Maybe the time will soon be ripe for the Zverev/Becker duo…