After the progresses made in the second half of last year which he concluded by winning the Rolex Paris Masters and overtaking Carlos Alcaraz in second place in the ATP ranking many fans and insiders thought that Alexander Zverev was finally ready to win a Grand Slam title.
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His run at the 2025 Australian Open came close to perfection until the final, where he literally picked up crumbs against a sensational version of Jannik Sinner. The German ace struggled a lot to accept that defeat and react, making the controversial decision to go and play tournaments on red clay in South America in February.
His main goal was to collect as many points as possible also taking advantage of Sinner's suspension after the agreement with WADA but Sascha collected only disappointments. The world number 2 was prematurely eliminated in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Acapulco, showing up in Indian Wells with many uncertainties.
The champion fromHamburg was hoping to get a good result in California after reaching the quarterfinals last year, but was eliminated by Tallon Griekspoor in the second round at the end of a match full of ups and downs.
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If Alcaraz were to lift his third trophy in a row at Indian Wells on Sunday, he would move to just over 400 points behind Alexander in the ATP ranking.
Zverev still suffers
On the latest edition of the 'Nothing Major' podcast, former world number 21 Steve Johnson expressed his candid opinion on the moment Sascha is going through: I said he would be fine, hes going to be fine at Indian Wells and Miami, hes going to win some of these tournaments and all that matters is the next Grand Slam in May, which is the French for him.
I think I was wrong on that prediction, as I am with many, many other predictions. He has looked out of sorts, flat, just not his best tennis.
I dont know if thats just a by-product of losing the Australian Open final and the mental and emotional toll that took on him."
