Alex Zverev overcoming obstacles in quest to reach the top

(CNN) — It’s 2024 and Alex Zverev is back doing what he does best on a tennis court: back in a grand slam final, topping the tree with a season-leading number of match wins on the men’s tour, and returning to a career-high ranking of world No. 2.

Those are all achievements which appeared to be distant and unattainable just two years ago.

“I’m happy (with) the level I am, I’m happy where I am in general with my tennis life,” Zverev tells CNN Sport at the 2024 Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. “I still want to achieve a lot of things.”

Injury nightmare

Turn back the clock to June 2022 and Zverev’s career was heading in an almost identical trajectory.

He went into that year off the back of the best season of his career to date, having sealed a second season-ending ATP title in Turin at the end of 2021.

He was on the brink of attaining world No. 1 status in the rankings, and his quest for an elusive first grand slam singles title looked to be within reach at the French Open.

But then everything changed.

During a pulsating semifinal encounter with Rafael Nadal under the floodlights at Roland Garros, the German rolled his right ankle, resulting in torn ligaments.

He had no choice but to retire from the match and his hopes for the tournament – and many subsequent events – were left in tatters.

“I felt really close to winning my first grand slam. I was extremely close to world No. 1,” he says. “It was a difficult moment because there were so many things that I wanted to achieve.

“Then after that there were obviously a lot of question marks, whether I was ever going be back to this level again, whether I was ever going be competing for grand slams, competing in the biggest tournaments in the world, if I would be even able to play these kind of guys again.”

‘I don’t know life without diabetes’

Later that year, Zverev announced the launch of the Alexander Zverev Foundation, designed to support children living with type 1 diabetes and prevent type 2 diabetes.

At the same time, the 27-year-old revealed that he had been living with type 1 diabetes since the age of four, and now tells CNN that he doesn’t “remember a life” without the illness.

Diabetes is characterized by high levels of blood glucose and can lead to serious health complications. Type 1 diabetes, which is unpreventable, develops when the body’s immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make insulin.

“(In) my early teenage years … I wanted to become a professional tennis player. It was already set in my mind,” Zverev says. “A lot of specialists and a lot of doctors told me that it’s impossible to be a professional athlete with this kind of illness.

“That was more difficult for me back then but now I feel like it’s just part of my life. Of course, it’s not an illness that anybody wants to have. I don’t want to have it, you know, millions of other kids don’t want to have it, but it’s ok. It’s the journey that life brings to you.

“I’m happy to hopefully have other kids have this kind of role model, have somebody that they can say, ‘He made it so I can as well’ and that’s the most important thing to me.”

Next step

Zverev’s recovery from ankle surgery was slow and steeped in caution.

If 2023 was a year of baby steps, 2024 has been one of giant strides with Zverev reestablishing his competitive self at the sport’s marquee tournaments.

He began the year with a statement victory over Carlos Alcaraz at the quarterfinal stage of the Australian Open, only for the Spaniard exact his revenge in a French Open final for the ages.

He also holds the distinction of being the Rafael Nadal’s final opponent at Roland Garros, knocking the Spaniard out of the first round of the tournament.

Although outmuscled by Taylor Fritz in a tense US Open quarterfinal, clinching the Paris Masters 1000 title saw Zverev ride into Turin on a wave of momentum.

His strong performances this year have come against the backdrop of off-the-court controversy. In June, Zverev and his former partner agreed to settle an assault case with no admission of guilt by Zverev, the Berlin Tiergarten District Court announced at the time.

Zverev was accused of “physically abusing and damaging the health of a woman during an argument in Berlin in May 2020,” according to a court statement from October last year. He was given a penalty order and fined €450,000 ($478,000) in October 2023, though Zverev denied the allegations and lodged an appeal.

He was eventually ordered to pay a fine of €200,000, with his lawyers telling CNN in June that the player “agreed to this discontinuation via his defense lawyer, solely in order to shorten the proceedings – above all in the interests of their child.”

The lawyers added: “Alexander Zverev is considered innocent. The dismissal does not constitute a finding of guilt or an admission of guilt. The legal presumption of innocence remains unaffected.”

Now, Zverev is seeking a hat-trick of Nitto ATP Finals crowns to tee up what he hopes will be a breakthrough season to come. Despite having been a pro for over 10 years and possessing a number of Masters 1000 titles, Zverev has only reached two major finals, losing both.

The big question is: will 2025 finally be the moment to break the grand slam title duck?

“I hope so,” he says. “You never know – anything can happen. Of course, like in 2022, anything can happen. I do feel more ready than ever to make that next step.”

The-CNN-Wire
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