On March 7, the official website of Haute Living magazine in the United States published a lengthy interview written by reporter Laura Schreffle, originally titled "Zverev's 2022 Goal: Dominating the World".
In the interview, Zverev revealed his personality characteristics, introduced how to deal with failure, revealed the secret of success, reviewed the olympic victory process, introduced his circle of friends and daily leisure life. I have compiled, condensed, and tweaked this interview, extracting the important contents of it and sharing it with you.
Personality traits: black and white, no gray area
"I love proving people wrong, and I have to prove them right away, no matter who they are." Speaking of his own personality, Zverev said straight to the point.
"I've been told many times in my life that I'm not going to get where I am now, that I'm not going to succeed in sport. Obviously, I love playing tennis in Germany, with 20,000 fans cheering me on and I'm a favourite among the audience. However, I'm also very grateful to the audience who didn't like me, and I really enjoyed the moment of being alone against the world. ”
"If they say I can't live by jumping off a skyscraper, I'll say to them, 'Yes, you're right.'" But if I can do it, I want to prove them wrong. My personality is black and white, without any gray areas. ”
Dealing with failure: After being knocked down, believe that you can get back on your feet
Zverev has the flesh-and-blood temperament of a young man, which looks more like arrogance. Some people don't recover from failure, but Zverev doesn't accept failure at all. Even if knocked down, he would quickly get back on his feet.
"Luckily, I'm actually someone with short-term memories. I can quickly forget about losing, which is a good thing because whether you lose or win a tennis match, there will always be a game next week. You always have the next chance, there will always be another game in the near future. It's important to have this mindset. ”
The secret to success: punching team members and kissing pet dogs
Zverev has been playing tennis since he was 5 years old and has been in the top 10 in the world since he was 20, and last year was his most successful year. He is the only active player besides the Fernard Moo Big Four to win 5 Masters titles.
Zverev attributed his achievements to racing experience and psychological superstitions. For example, he would throw punches at everyone in the team, and he also liked to kiss the foreheads of his two poodles, Loevick and Junior. "I'm constantly gaining experience from past games and defeats and knowing what to do in different situations. For the last six months, everything has gone well, I've enjoyed it both on and off the court, and I've played amazing tennis. When you truly enjoy what you're doing, everything becomes easier and more natural. ”
Winning an Olympic gold medal: the greatest achievement, but the moment was bittersweet
Ahead of this year's Tokyo Olympics, Djokovic became the men's tennis player expected to replicate Graf's annual Golden Slam feat. But Zverev blocked Djokovic from the final in Tokyo and eventually won the Olympic gold medal.
To this day, Zverev is still amazed by this achievement, considering it the greatest achievement of his career, and he admits that the moment he won the championship was bittersweet.
"I won a gold medal for the German team and it was a dream come true. Before the semi-finals, I was frustrated because I was going to play against Novak, who had barely lost a game last year. When I defeated him, I started crying, and I was very emotional in that moment. I know that the only thing Djokovic hasn't won in his career is the Olympics, and he basically has all the records and won everything but Olympic gold medals. I could have screamed and rejoiced in that moment, but I kept comforting him. ”
Circle of Friends: There are only a few friends in the circle, and they trust their parents the most
Zverev admits that he is a man who does not have many friends, and that this is his active choice. For those true friends, he is willing to go to the soup for the other party, or suppress himself after winning the game and not celebrate.
"I have a very small but very close circle of friends, and I really go to the soup for my friends, but I definitely need time to get the friendship to that level." I'm not a guy with 150 contacts on my phone. To me, there are very few people who mean a lot, and I like to keep a small circle. ”
Among the professional players, Zverev's close friends include Djokovic, Tim and Rublev, who has been in the position for 14 years. So how did Zverev separate the competition on the pitch from the friendship in life? How did he draw the line?
"Me and Novak, obviously we're two of the top three players in the world, we can wrestle for the win for four or five hours at the US Open and the Australian Open, and after the game we'll hug each other and everything will be fine because that's the kind of relationship you need. If you can't separate the two, it's hard to handle this relationship on the tour. ”
Zverev confessed that he had a close relationship with Federer, and since 2020, their relationship has begun to be somewhat estranged. Zverev believes that Federer had helped him a lot when he was just starting out. "When I first started playing on the tour, he was a role model. Federer is a guy who loves talking to young people and offering advice, he helped me that way when I was 18-20 years old, telling me what it's like to be at the top of the rankings, how to deal with the media and sponsors etc, and I think he helped me a lot in that regard. ”
In addition to his friends, Zverev trusted his parents the most. He believes that parents cannot force their children to do anything, but let them choose for themselves. The most important thing to choose is that you truly love it from the bottom of your heart. Zverev's parents were both professional tennis players, "they obviously both liked tennis, but they wanted me to play other sports (such as hockey and football)." I am very grateful to them for letting me make my own decisions. ”
Leisure: Go on vacation, party with friends
At the end of last year's season, Zverev did not compete in the Davis Cup, choosing instead to go on holiday to the Maldives. "It's great to be able to get away from everyone after 11 months of playing, I'm going to a place where you can't see anyone you don't want to see, it's the perfect place for me to recover."
Zverev was good friends with The Miami Heat's Jimmy Butler, and the two became friends because of their shared athleticism and love of Miami. "We like to do all kinds of games like drinking, playing cards, playing dominoes, and we bet on the game. We would open a good bottle of wine and there was a great group of people around us, basically playing cards until 3am, and on those nights I would basically lose a lot of money. ”
In addition, Zverev has a special love for cars, he has four cars, including a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, two BMW i8s and an Alpine, of which BMW and Alpine are prizes from the competition. (Source: Tennis House Author: Yun Cirrus Yunshu)