David Ferrer to coach Alex Zverev on a “trial basis”

The Blond Blur

G.O.A.T.
Ferrer at their first practice :p
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2nd Serve Ace

Hall of Fame
Hopefully he will tell him that no 6'6" player needs this elaborate serve motion that he has.

Honestly Goran would be his best coach.
 

Jaitock1991

Hall of Fame
Interesting mix. David's insane competitive instinct and grit (very underated part of his game, imo he's not far off Rafa in this department) is in many ways what's been missing from Sasha's game so far in his career, much like pretty much the entire nextgen. So if David was to be able to implement some of this into Sasha I honestly believe he could be in for a hell of a career. As long as he doesn't teach him to start smoking.
 
Not surprising to me that Ferrer is staying involved in the sport continuously. How many last tournaments did he have ? Lol. Guy loves tennis. I'm not sure how much he can help Zverev though. Do believe he can be a positive influence and a great example of professionalism for him.
 

haqq777

Legend
Loved Ferrer's tenacity, grit and overall how he took on tennis as a whole. And a few times Zverev mentioned also how much he respected Ferrer so very interesting to see how it all unfolds.
 

Mainad

Bionic Poster
Well, Ferrero already said Zverev didn´t liked hard work so let´s see how this goes...

Daveed should be able to get plenty of advice and tips from JC (they're very close friends) or maybe he intends to approach it like a blank sheet?
 

Gerco

Semi-Pro
Daveed should be able to get plenty of advice and tips from JC (they're very close friends) or maybe he intends to approach it like a blank sheet?
Don´t know man, it seemed neither Lendl nor Ferrero could put up with Zverev s*it.. Maybe David´s patience will..
 
I think he will have great insight into how Zverev can play more efficiently. I can imagine a lot of “I had to hit this ball in this situation because I’m 5’9, but If I had your height/length I would have been able to do this.” Ferrer epitomizes a player being successful despite his limitations. He’s the complete opposite of a player like Zverev who so far has underachieved despite being genetically gifted.

I’ve noticed a cultural commonality of Spanish tennis is a willingness to suffer. That type of fighting spirit and perseverance is exactly what Zverev is missing. Hopefully he can take advantage of this opportunity, because it’s a rare situation where the coach will meet or exceed the work put in by the player.
 

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
This could be a dream team. Zverev has the desire and the commitment to make it big, but he doesn't have the mental steadiness and resilience to go with it. Ferrer embodies that mental strength that Zverev is lacking now.
 
This could be a dream team. Zverev has the desire and the commitment to make it big, but he doesn't have the mental steadiness and resilience to go with it. Ferrer embodies that mental strength that Zverev is lacking now.

You don't know what the word commitment means...

I'd also brush up on the metallurgy of iron if I were you.
 

Aretium

Hall of Fame
Ferrer would be an awesome coach, because imagine a really talented player with Ferrer's work ethic, I think it will work.
Doesn't work that way. Zverev should get am offensive minded coach. 6ft 6 player playing 3 metres behind the baseline.... Not going to work.
 
Doesn't work that way. Zverev should get am offensive minded coach. 6ft 6 player playing 3 metres behind the baseline.... Not going to work.

Disagree. Some of the best coaches that also played on the tour had success with players completely different to them, Brad Gilbert comes to mind immediately. Given that Ferrer also just beat Zverev in Miami in 2019, and was 3-5 overall against him in the latter half of his career, I’d imagine the Ferrer is intimately familiar with Zverev’s game and has some great insights. Fed and Ljubicic have proven how beneficial it can be to bring in someone who played against you and your contemporaries.
 

Wurm

Professional
The point of "super" coaches is to add the extra 2-5% to a player's game in terms of strategy, mentality, and so forth, to get them over the line at the biggest tournaments.

Whilst Zverev's second serve is how it is right now he's only winning big tournaments if the seas part and he's allowed to stroll through to the trophy with absolutely zero pressure and if that happens it'll be an insult to all the players who failed to win slams because of the big 3 blocking the way.

Maybe Zverev thinks getting a shorter guy in who could never rely on his serve for cheap points might help him sort out the mentality on the second serve... or maybe Ferrer's actually a treasure trove of technical insight... either way, he's going to need a lot of patience to deal with the Diva and his entourage if past super coach experiments are anything to go by.
 

accidental

Hall of Fame
Zverev hasn’t seemed to learn you can’t just import work ethic by hiring a hard working tennis player as your coach
 

ChrisRF

Legend
Ferrer epitomizes a player being successful despite his limitations. He’s the complete opposite of a player like Zverev who so far has underachieved despite being genetically gifted.
IMO Zverev has already overachieved with 3 Masters titles and the WTF win. Everything since that WTF showed that he has problems in almost every match against a top 50 player, everywhere. And his game is extremely limited.

I would say he was the luckiest player of the last years. When he beat Djokovic or Federer there mostly was a reason why the others weren’t at their best. But anyway, his problems are the "normal" opponents and his "normal" level which is mediocre as best. Maybe he stays capable of achieving the occasional big match win, but a Slam title would surprise me extremely.
 
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Enceladus

Legend
Ferrer's cooperation with Sascha Zverev will sooner or later fail, due to Sascha's lack of work ethic. I doubt Ferrer will be more successful than Lendl and Ferrero.
 
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