Alexander Zverev was born on April 20th, 1997, in Hamburg, Germany, to Russian parents and former tennis players Irina Zvereva and Alexander Mikhailovich Zverev. His father reached only 175th place on the ATP Tour, and his mother had a career-high 380th place on the WTA Tour.
In her playing days, Zvereva played a final of an ITF $10,000 tournament in Athens, in which she met Julia Apostoli, mother of Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas, who would later become one of her son's main rivals.
Like almost every professional tennis player, Zverev started playing tennis already at the age of three. The German also had a good practice partner throughout his childhood, as his brother, Mischa Zverev, was also a professional tennis player.
Already from his junior days, Zverev showed his talent when he climbed to the world no. 1 spot in the junior category. He managed to win the 2014 Boys' Australian Open, and reached the Roland Garros final year before, as well as the US Open semifinal.
Zverev's transition to the professional was smooth as well. At the age of 17, he won the Braunschweig Challenger, becoming the youngest player to win a Challenger tournament since Bernard Tomic's triumph in 2009 at the time.
He then quickly progressed through the marks, and in 2018 and 2019, Zverev made his mark on the Grand Slam level, reaching the Roland Garros quarterfinals. In 2018, he also won the ATP Finals, which is one of his biggest career triumphs, and he managed to repeat the success in 2021.
In 2020, he played his sole major final, losing to his very good friend Dominic Thiem at the US Open. One of Zverev's biggest achievements includes winning the gold medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, beating Russia's Karen Khachanov in the final.
The German then missed the remainder of the 2022 season, before returning back in 2023 and slowly returning to his best level and making a Top 10 comeback.
