Andy Roddick Defends Alexander Zverev Amidst The “Extra” Pressure of Adding a Grand Slam Title to His Resume

Alexander Zverev has been heavily criticized for not being able to add a Grand Slam title to his resume.

Andy Roddick Defends Alexander Zverev Amidst The “Extra” Pressure of Adding a Grand Slam Title to His Resume

Alexander Zverev and Andy Roddick (via X/The Tennis Letter/Forbes)

Alexander Zverev has been one of the best players of his generation who is yet to win a Grand Slam title in his career. That has led the German star to be heavily criticized for his failure to lift a major title despite reaching the final thrice. Tennis legend Andy Roddick has now come to his defense amid the growing pressure on the World No.3.

Zverev has won 24 ATP singles titles in his career and also claimed an Olympic gold medal in 2021 Tokyo. That’s far more than what many players of his generation have achieved in their careers, but Zverev’s failure to win a major title has been the major talk of his career. The 28-year-old seems to be running out of time in his bid for a Grand Slam title.

At the recently concluded French Open, he was expected to put up a good show and challenge for the title. But, the German star fell short against Novak Djokovic, losing to the 38-year-old in four sets. After the match, he was heavily criticized by tennis legend Boris Becker, who called on him to part ways with his father and brother and seek a new coach.

With the Wimbledon Championships fast approaching, Zverev will face a different set of challenges as he attempts to finally win a Grand Slam. However, Andy Roddick revealed in his Served with Andy Roddick podcast that the biggest mark against the World No.3 is that he’s yet to win a major title:

The biggest mark against him (Zverev) is that he’s not Roger, Rafa, Novak, Alcaraz, or Sinner. The biggest knock is that he is pretty clearly the best player to have not won a Major at this point in his career. Because he has to talk about it so much, there is an extra pressure set there. It’s this weird thing where I’m not going to criticize someone for being elite…I’m not going to criticize someone and pretend like they haven’t accomplished a lot because they haven’t accomplished the thing.

Zverev has finished as a runner-up at Grand Slams on three different occasions. The first time was in the 2020 US Open, where he lost to Dominic Thiem, then at the 2024 French Open against Carlos Alcaraz, and finally at the 2025 Australian Open, where he lost in straight sets to World No.1 Jannik Sinner.

It’s looking likely that Zverev might sometimes end up not winning even a single Grand Slam title as the likes of Alcaraz, Sinner and more youngsters have been dominating the majors. He might need a monumental effort or luck to prevail at a Grand Slam tournament.

Andy Roddick says he won’t join in criticizing Alexander Zverev for not winning a major title

Recently, a boatload of critics pointed out that Alexander Zverev doesn’t deserve to be in the top 3 of the ATP rankings. The German star was expected to overtake Jannik Sinner in World No.1 when he was serving his three-month suspension, but Zverev managed to win just one ATP 500 title within that period.

Alexander Zverev (via X/ATP)
Alexander Zverev (via X/ATP)

Also, unfortunately for him, Carlos Alcaraz overtook him to become the World No.2 while he dropped to No.3. Additionally, the 28-year-old has been criticized for a lack of fighting spirit in Grand Slam tournaments. During the aforementioned podcast, Andy Roddick revealed that he will not criticize Zverev for not winning a major title:

Does he want to be the best player to have never won a Major? Or does he win a Major and he goes past people like me and Medvedev and all these other people who his career statistics stack up favorably against except for the ranking and the Major…I’m not going to criticize someone who has accomplished a lot in his career because he has not yet accomplished the thing.

Zverev opened his grass-court campaign with a runners-up finish at the Stuttgart Open. He will now compete at the Terra Wortmann Open ahead of the Wimbledon Championships. He will face American Marcos Giron in the opening match in Halle.

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