Alexander Zverev is not playing on the same level as he played exactly one year ago when he looked like a challenger in Paris.
The German has seen his level not being adequate compared to what the tennis community has seen from him in the past several years. He's in danger of losing the status of Germany's number-one player for the first time in seven years and it's all to do with his inability to gain top form recently.
There has only been one event where he looked okay and that has been Monte-Carlo. With Roland Garros looming, it doesn't look very promising for him. A bad outing in Paris could see his ranking slip even further. Becker watched him play in the Davis Cup a few months ago and he can see that Sascha is fit but he's not in a very good rhythm as he revealed in a talk with Eurosport.
I think he's 100% healthy and has confidence in his ankle - and that physically he could play through every match if he could play more. I think that's the bigger problem. Tennis changes every 18 months. That means you always have to improve accordingly. You get the impression that he hasn't improved and the opponents know exactly how they have to play against Sascha in 2023. That is a problem!
The Madrid Open was particularly difficult for Zverev as he recently lost to an incredible Carlos Alcaraz. That's a matchup he lost a year ago in Madrid as well but he then came back to beat the Spaniard at Roland Garros. The reality nowadays is brutally different.
You want to win free points and create surprise moments. I watched the match against Alcaraz: it was two worlds. A year ago, he beat Alcaraz in Paris and was on his way to beating the unbeatable Nadal, and possibly Ruud in the final. Sascha would have become the new No. 1. That's in the past, and 12 months later, the stark reality is brutal. That's the sport. He is fit again but can't manage to match the form he had a year ago. There are many reasons for that.
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