Patrick Mouratgolou has a theory on why he thinks Alexander Zverev has yet to win a Grand Slam title.
It is well-documented how badly the German wants to join the group of players who have a major title to their name.
The World number two has certainly come close, with two of his three Grand Slam finals going to five sets.
But Zverev has come up short most recently in the Australian Open final as Jannik Sinner claimed a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win to defend the title.
Patrick Mouratoglou tells Alexander Zverev what he needs to do to win a Grand Slam
Alexander Zverev has now reached the final of three of the four Grand Slams and suffered defeat.
The German was unable to apply sustained pressure on the World number one in Australia, who cruised to his third Grand Slam title. The 27-year-old was distraught during the post-match presentation and claimed he is “just not good enough.”
Coach Patrick Mouratgolou offered his perspective and thinks Zverev is still lacking in areas of his game and explained what he needs to do to succeed at Grand Slam level.
“I don’t think that Sascha loses this Grand Slam final, at least the last one, because he doesn’t believe enough. I think he does believe,” the Frenchman said via his Instagram page.
“But I think that there’s still things he’s lacking in his game. He improved, for sure. He’s No 2 in the world now, he came back stronger, and I think he added a lot of things to his game.
“When it comes to the big moments, he lacks being bold, being aggressive, taking the risk, taking the match, really taking it. He pushes himself to do it but it’s not natural yet.
“I think he needs more time. I think he needs to do it more and more and more and more and find better efficiency.”
Alexander Zverev is the sixth player to reach World number two without a Grand Slam
Zverev remains without a Grand Slam despite reaching a career-high ranking of World number two. He has joined five other players who held that ranking position that either did not or have not won a major.
Alex Corretja reached number two in the rankings, but was unable to win a Grand Slam despite reaching the French Open final on two occasions.
Magnus Norman spent six weeks at the number two position, but he lost his one and only major final at the French Open in 2000.
Tommy Haas reached number two in May 2002, but he never reached a Slam final, but did reach the last four on four occasions.
20 years later, Casper Ruud reached number two for the first time, after reaching the 2022 French Open and US Open finals, losing to Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz respectively.
Marcelo Rios is one of the 29 players to have become the World number one, but he suffered defeat in the 1998 Australian Open to Petr Korda. Zverev and Ruud have time to change this however, but it will not be easy.
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