How Alexander Zverev Consulted Andy Roddick Before The Best Year Of His Career

Last December Andy Roddick got a surprise phone call from one of the best tennis players on the planet.

Alexander Zverev hadn’t won a Grand Slam singles title yet but was knocking on the door.

The 6-foot-6 German was 0-3 in major finals, losing the 2020 U.S. Open final to Dominic Thiem in heartbreaking fashion after being up two sets, the 2024 Roland Garros final to Carlos Alcaraz and the 2025 Australian Open final to Jannik Sinner.

When Zverev called Roddick, who is now broadcasting the U.S. Open for ESPN and ABC, he said he wanted to chat for 15 minutes. They ended up talking for close to two hours.

At that point, Sinner and Alcaraz had combined to win eight straight major titles, and Alcaraz would soon make it nine at the Australian Open.

Zverev seemed to be the odd man out and it was a fair question whether he’d ever hoist a major trophy.

“I talked to him this off-season and we talked for two hours,” Roddick, the last American man to win a major title at the 2003 U.S. Open, explained in an interview last Sunday during his limousine ride to the Open after filming an undercover GEICO commercial in Forest Hills, N.Y.

“I was surprised at how matter-of-factly aware of he everything he was. He knew what he was. He goes, ‘I’m not going to be better than these guys [Sinner and Alcaraz] over 10 years. I need to negotiate winning two matches on a Friday and a Sunday [at Slams] and that’s going to define my entire career.'”

TOPSHOT – Andy Roddick of the United States raises the trophy after defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3, in the men’s final match, 07 September, 2003, at the US Open tennis championships in Flushing Meadows, NY. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo by STAN HONDA / AFP) (Photo by STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)

Well, for one thing, Roddick knew about battling some of the the greatest tennis players ever and coming up short in the biggest of moments. Roddick lost four major finals to Roger Federer, including the 2006 U.S. Open final and three at Wimbledon.

“The way he put it was, you were good enough but you had to overcome these giants [Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic],” Roddick said of Zverev. “What are the learnings and yours is different because you won early [in your career] so that’s a nice little insurance policy over where I’m at.”

Roddick was 21 when he won the Open. Zverev was 28 when the two spoke in December. (He turned 29 in April.)

Roddick was impressed at how honest Zverev was during the conversation.

“He used the term yips on his serve and said he choked that U.S. Open final,” Roddick explained on ESPN during Zverev’s semifinal win over Karen Khachanov on Friday.

Zverev, of course, went on to win his first major final at Roland Garros in June in a tournament where Sinner went out early due to cramps and Alcaraz didn’t play because of a wrist injury.

Still, after winning that major, the 6-foot-6 German is playing with much more confidence and now has a chance to win his second major this season against American Ben Shelton in Sunday’s final. Shelton, meantime, is bidding to become the first American man in 23 years to win a major.

“Zverev has admitted he’s happier on the tennis court now,” Roddick said. “He feels freer.”

Roddick also believes it’s not nearly a big enough story that Zverev has gotten to No. 2 in the world despite have Type 1 diabetes and having to check his blood sugar levels during matches and inject himself with insulin.

12 June 2025, Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart: Tennis: ATP Tour – Stuttgart, Men, Singles, Round of 16: Zverev (Germany) – Moutet (France). Alexander Zverev treats himself. Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa (Photo by Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)

“I don’t know how it’s not a bigger story, is the fact that he’s literally checking blood sugar levels every single switchover,” Roddick said in the limo.

“He has his kit. Imagine playing nine and a half hours.”

Roddick explained that his father-in-law, Steve Decker, the father of model and actress Brookyn Decker, is a pacemaker salesman who travels constantly and also has diabetes. Roddick said he’s gotten a “crash course on how you deal with [diabetes] daily.”

“My mother-in-law is like all day checking her phone just to make sure he doesn’t crash, and that’s not 10 hours on court,” Roddick said. “It’s insane, it’s nuts. I don’t think it’s talked about enough, frankly. He doesn’t talk about it, too.”

Zverev is now in position to win a second major at a time when Sinner and Alcaraz have combined to win 10 of the last 11. The German is 5-0 against Shelton.

“I believed it was possible,” Zverev said after reaching the final. “I don’t think many of you did. The question was always whether Carlos and Jannik were going to play all four Grand Slam finals against each other again.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Alexander Zverev of Germany celebrates a point against Karen Khachanov during their Men’s Singles Semifinal match on Day Thirteen of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 11, 2026 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Roddick isn’t taking any credit for helping Zverev enjoy the best year of his career, but he’s fascinated to see how it turns out.

Either the German will win a second major after his pep talk with Roddick last December, or Shelton will end the American drought of 23 years and Roddick will stop having to answer questions about it.

“[Zverev] is a safe bet whenever it’s not Jannik on the other side,” Roddick said, adding that Sinner creates “constant pressure” on Zverev the way Andre Agassi did to Roddick. “He hates that matchup against Carlos better, frankly.”

He added of Zverev, who now seems destined for the Hall of Fame: “Just because you win once doesn’t mean you haven’t solved problems that you haven’t solved yet…Now he’s in the Hall of Fame probably, but the tennis ball doesn’t know that you won in May. You can’t lie to it.”

This article was originally published on Forbes.com