Ivan Lendl lays the groundwork for Alexander Zverev to emulate Andy Murray
There cannot be many sights that worry Novak Djokovic more than Ivan Lendl sitting at the side of the court. The blank Czech oversaw Andy Murray’s best results against him, including a victory here at the O2 Arena in the 2016 final. And now Lendl is giving Alexander Zverev a leg-up, too.
Zverev plays a less fiddly, more forceful game than Murray, but the one thing they have in common is feeling more comfortable on the backhand wing.
Which is why Lendl encouraged Murray to hit fiercely off his forehand.
Since moving on to Zverev’s team in August, he has apparently delivered the same shot of testosterone into his latest client’s right arm. Asked about Lendl’s input into last night’s win, Zverev replied: “Nothing, we talked about golf.” But then he grinned, and admitted he had been kidding.
“He obviously analysed the match I played with him [Djokovic] a few days ago,” said Zverev, who had suffered a 6-4, 6-1 defeat during the round-robin stage. “He told me a few things I had to do different. I was more aggressive. I tried to take the ball earlier. Those kind of things.”
It is not easy to draw Zverev on this subject because of his instinctive loyalty to his parents. Irena and Alexander Snr were not only his coaches from as soon as he could walk, but a pair of fine players in their own right (Alexander Snr beat such well-known names as Miloslav Mecir and Vijay Amritraj during his 36 Davis Cup appearances for Russia).
As Murray found, though, it helps to have someone who has been there and done it. Now standing at No . 4 in the world, just a handful of points behind Roger Federer, Zverev is channelling Lendl’s hard-boiled mentality into tangible reward.
