John McEnroe identified a problem with Alexander Zverev’s game in 2018 and he still hasn’t been able to solve it

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Alexander Zverev appears to be making some changes ahead of the North American hard-court swing, following his first-round exit at Wimbledon.

The German lost to Arthur Rinderknech in his opening match at the All England Club, stating after the match that he had ‘never felt this empty’ before, and hinted at a potential change in his coaching team.

Recently, Zverev has been seen working with Toni Nadal at the Rafael Nadal Academy in preparation for the build-up to the US Open.

Now 28 years old, the world number three is yet to capture a Grand Slam title, which American tennis legend John McEnroe predicted in 2018 he would have done by now.

What John McEnroe said about Alexander Zverev in 2018

As per The Independent, McEnroe said of Zverev ahead of the French Open that year: “I think he’s going to win some Grand Slams, but maybe he wasn’t quite sure whether he could do it physically.

“Then he was trying to learn mentally what it means and what it takes to go the best of five sets. I think he put a lot of pressure on himself.

“I think he got a bit too defensive. He needs to dictate play more and be more aggressive. It looks like he’s been doing that a bit more the last month or so.

“He’s had some great results, so there’s no reason at this stage to think that he shouldn’t have a good run at Roland Garros.”

Alexander Zverev’s results at Grand Slams since 2018

Since McEnroe weighed in on his potential, Zverev has reached the latter stages at Grand Slams on several occasions, but has never gone all the way.

He made both his first semi-final and final at a major in 2020, advancing to the final four at the Australian Open that year and the championships match at the US Open.

Zverev then reached four semi-finals between 2021 and 2023, three of which came at Roland Garros.

In 2024, he made it to his second Grand Slam final, losing to Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open.

Earlier this season, Zverev tallied his third major final in Melbourne, but this time he was overcome by a red-hot Jannik Sinner.