Alexander Zverev suffered a surprise first round defeat at Wimbledon this year before opening up with his post-match comments.
Zverev was beaten by Arthur Rinderknech to lose in the opening round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in six years.
The world number three admitted he had been struggling with motivation recently, with Aryna Sabalenka offering Zverev advice after these comments.
One thing that has been attributed to the German’s recent results have been his schedule, with Zverev playing many tournaments in the grass court season.
After hearing his recent comments, Zverev’s compatriot Andrea Petkovic believes that something needs to change.
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Following his first round defeat at Wimbledon to the aforementioned Rinderknech, Zverev admitted that he felt ’empty’ and said that he was ‘lacking joy’ at the moment.
These comments sparked alarm among some, including Petkovic who believes that tennis needs to change its scheduling to avoid players being burnt out.
“There was one occasion in the fourth set where he was down two sets to one, fourth set tie break, it’s 5-5,” Petkovic said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast. “He had a second serve and he had already served a few double faults in important moments, Zverev.
“So he has a second serve and this point will decide whether it’s set point for Zverev or match point for Rinderkenech and Zverev serves a 134mph second serve, down the T. Later he said when I hit that serve, yes it looks great, but I just did not care. If I hit a double fault I would not have cared if I was match point down.
“So in conclusion it was along the lines of being burned out, lacking motivation and we have seen this with a lot of players. I really think the organisations will have to change something around the scheduling, we are seeing this more and more frequently. I think is now an issue.
“It is a common theme now. We heard Casper Ruud talk about it in Madrid, Carlos [Alcaraz] talk about it after the Miami Open.”
The busy tennis calendar has been a big conversation amongst many players in recent years, including Alex de Minaur who admitted that he felt burnt out after Roland Garros.
How many tournaments has Alexander Zverev played in 2025?
The recent signs of burn out for Zverev are evident in the number of tournaments he has played this year, more than any other player in the current top five of the ATP rankings.
Zverev reached the Australian Open final to start his season, but has been unable to continue that form since.
The world number three has only won one title so far in 2025, with Zverev triumphing at the ATP 250 event in Munich on clay.
Despite the calls for Zverev to play less tennis, he is currently entered to return to the court in the coming weeks at the clay court event in Gstaad.
That tournament will begin on Monday, July 14, and is also set to feature Casper Ruud, Alexander Bublik and Matteo Berrettini.