Note: The truth value of many of these sentences is fading quickly.
“Chokerev,” “Abuserev,” Zverev abused so often on Twitter I never how to respond. Zverev bullied as a diabetic kid. Zverev accused of domestic violence. Zverev smashing his racquet close to the umpire’s legs. I should write about his backhand, the second-best backhand on tour to Djokovic. I could write about his fear of failure, which is not as great as my fear of failure whenever I hit a second serve. At 6’6,” Zverev has one of the best first serves in the world. His second serve, though, is too much like mine: fear causes scar tissue causes fear causes frustration causes anger causes scar tissue causes fear. Zverev hits it too hard as if he’s brave and taking a risk. He hits it too soft as if he’s scared and playing it safe. Is it the mind that haunts the second serve, or the second serve that haunts the mind? I’m going out right now to work on mine. I know Zverev’s working on his.
Alexander Zverev is a US Open Finalist and Olympic Gold Medalist in singles. For more on his career, see his page on Wikipedia.
Artist Bio: The artwork of Alexander Zverev is by the digital artist, Sam Brannan, from St. Petersburg, Russia. Sam’s beautiful digital artwork on tennis players can be seen on Instagram. You can also follow him and get access to all his digital art on Patreon.
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9 replies on “Zverev’s Mind, or Zverev’s Second Serve”
💕👋Nice Blog. I’m your new follower.
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Thank you so much. Greetings from the south of Spain 💯🇪🇸🫂
🙏I am looking forward to your response.
Hi PK Mundo. I enjoy reading your blog as well. The South of Spain is one of my favorite places on earth!
🎾
Linebarger, your second serve was the only thing I could hit back. So glad to learn of your fear when hitting it!
Thanks for the comment! Brought a smile to my face. I am working on the fear part!
A glorious picture and an enlightening piece to go with it.
Gwen.
Thanks, Gwen!
Your chain of causality is eloquent and chilling. Second-serve syndrome must be lived (I have!) to be appreciated. It ranks with overhead-smash terror! :)
Thanks, JMN! I have also suffered from overhead-smash terror. Better now, but afraid to come to the net for a while lest my opponents lob me.