Soviet tennis player, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.
He played 36 matches for the national team of the country in the Davis Cup, of which he won 18 fights.
European champion in singles (1982) and men's doubles (1983) category. Winner of several international tournaments. Champion of the games "Friendship-84".
Three-time winner of the USSR championships in singles and four times in men's doubles. Twice headed the rating of the strongest tennis players in the USSR.
Since 1991 he has been living and working in Germany.
Father and coach of tennis players Mikhail and Alexander.

Vladimir RAUSH
Saint Petersburg - Moscow

The tennis tournament St.Petersburg Open, which ended on the banks of the Neva on Sunday, may someday be written into history. The fact is that it was here that 19-year-old German Sasha Zverev won his first victory in the ATP series tournaments, defeating Stan Wawrinka from Switzerland, the winner of the recent US Open. As you can guess from the name and surname, the champion is directly related to Russia. His father and coach Alexander Zverev Sr. was a famous Soviet tennis player and for many years played for the national team in the Davis Cup. Mom Irina Fateeva is much less known, although she once played tennis at a professional level.

Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge: the Zverevs now live in two houses, in Germany and the USA, and have not appeared in their historical homeland for a long time. However, in St. Petersburg the whole family gathered in full force - in addition to the parents and Sasha, the eldest son Mikhail also came to the tournament, who, however, dropped out in the first round. Columnist "SE" could not miss this opportunity and met with the head of the tennis clan for an interview.

TENNIS WAS MORE DIFFERENT BEFORE

Many former athletes say they would not want children to follow in their footsteps. Apparently, you do not share this position?

My sons themselves wanted to play tennis, no one forced them to do so. It was a voluntary choice. If children have a desire to go in for sports, to which I have devoted my whole life, of course, you need to support them in this. Another thing is to separate the game for pleasure and professional tennis. At first, the child just wants to throw the ball over the net, but then the moment comes when you need to make a decision: is he ready to take it seriously. If everything is "just for fun" - just for fun, then nobody needs it. Here we must pay tribute to the guys: both Misha and Sasha treated tennis very responsibly from the very beginning.

In adolescence, children often begin to rebel and give up sports. Did Sasha happily pass this period?

Sooner or later there comes a moment when a young person wants to make decisions in his life himself. Naturally, we give our son such an opportunity. But at the same time, we carefully control that everything is within the normal range. To be honest, we never had any problems with this. From a young age, Sasha saw how his older brother lived and trained, and then he himself followed the same path.

- Sasha says that you often cite yourself as an example to him. Looking at your son, do you catch your own features in him?

If we talk about his tennis style - with difficulty. Modern tennis is very different from the one we used to play. He became much faster, stronger and more aggressive. We couldn't even dream of the serving speed of the current players. Accordingly, the style of the game has changed. What we have in common is the character we show on the court. Sasha, like me, tries to fight to the end, regardless of the score and the opponent.

I remember that you preferred long plays of the ball on the back line, while the son is active all over the court and often goes to the net.

I built my game depending on the opponent. In general, in our time, tactics played a much greater role than now. Some tennis players now rank in the top 20 of the world thanks to their serve. There are those who mainly operate only on the back line and those who try to go to the net more often. Previously, tennis was more variable. It was necessary to pick up the key to the opponent and use his weaknesses. To do this, it was necessary to be able to do almost everything.

Despite his tall height, Sasha moves very well around the court. Do you pay special attention to this aspect?

There is nothing to do without good movement on the court in modern tennis. You need to be fast and at the same time - very hardy. This requires appropriate physical fitness. It is important for us that Sasha be a complex athlete. Therefore, two years ago, we invited the well-known fitness trainer Jez Green, who once trained Andy Murray, to cooperate. We are satisfied with his work. Sasha is tall and thin at the same time, you need to load him very carefully. Otherwise, injuries may occur.

- I heard that his back and shoulder often hurt now.

When a player gets in good shape, he can go very far in several tournaments in a row - reach the semi-finals or finals. Naturally, in this case, he gets a serious physical load. Here, even the strongest athlete can get sick. It's not related to injury; rather, it is a sign of overexertion. Sometimes playing with heavy balls leads to this. After a couple of weeks of using them, tennis players begin to feel the shoulder, which bears an increased load during impact and serve. In this case, you need a pause and a quality recovery - in particular, massage. If this moment is underestimated and the performances continue, the situation can escalate and lead to injury. Fortunately, we have been able to avoid them for now.

As far as I understand, it was injuries that undermined your eldest son's career. Did you change your training method after that?

Misha's injuries were partly a matter of chance. At a tournament in Shanghai, he unsuccessfully fell on his arm and injured his hand. I had to take a break, during which time his body was a little weaned from the load. And when Misha returned to the court again, it could not stand it. It took time to get involved in the work gradually, but it was not there. The eldest son beat one tennis player, and immediately went to an even stronger opponent. Defeated him - and ran into the next. As a result, a hand injury pulled other medical problems with it. My back and knees began to hurt ... This is also why we treat Sasha very carefully. If unpleasant symptoms appear, we try to immediately pause.

I DO NOT TAKE PRIZE FROM THE SON

This season, attention to Sasha has increased dramatically: he is already being called the future first racket of the world. In this regard, the pressure on him and on you increases?

We try to ignore these conversations. Journalists often raise a stir where it is completely unnecessary. There is no doubt that Sasha belongs to the "new generation" - the new generation. He has already won the junior Australian Open, played in the finals of the ATP-250 tournaments in Nice and the ATP-500 tournaments in Hull, defeated Roger Federer - this cannot be taken away from him. But to say that he is a potential first racket of the world is not yet worth it. To do this, you need to work very hard and play well throughout the season. One, even a won tournament, will not make you No. 1.

Sasha is not yet ready for even performances over a long period. Even this season, he only looked good for six months, then he fell into a slump. The son is still very young and cannot stand 10 months in a row at a good level. When this happens, you can think of some kind of jump in the rankings. But even then it will be too early to talk about first place - after all, it can become second, fifth, and eighth. It seems to me that Sasha himself understands this very well.

You train your son personally. Is this a principled position, taking into account your rich sports experience, or just a suitable mentor has not yet been found?

It can not be in any other way. Sasha is not just my son, but also a student with whom I have been working for a very long time. We have a common goal, towards which we are moving gradually, step by step. Nobody else just knows our ideas. What can an outside coach do? Come and say: beat there and there? But this is not an end in itself. Even a great former player turned mentor can never guarantee success. Look, Goran Ivanisevic worked with Cilic, and then they broke up. Inviting such a specialist will not bring automatic success.

- Aren't you afraid that working with your son will affect your personal relationship?

I know many cases when joint training of parents with children led to disastrous results. But each situation is individual, there is no universal recipe. Personally, I never had any particular difficulties with my sons. I consider myself quite competent in tennis as a person who is well versed in this matter. And at the same time, I always share my work with my personal life.

- Is it true that you get all the prize money for your son that he wins in tournaments?

- (laughs) Of course not. This cannot be, if only because Sasha is a member of the Association of Tennis Professionals, and transfers all ATP prize money to his account. He has a credit card attached to this account, which he disposes of absolutely freely. I have nothing to do with him.

I can guess where this question comes from. The fact is that after the elimination from the tournament, Sasha usually does not have the mood to deal with bureaucratic affairs. Therefore, he asks me to go to the organizing committee of the competition and pick up a piece of paper there, on which the amount of prize money due to him is written. I give this piece of paper to him so that he knows how much money should come to his account.

- They say that both of your sons do not drink alcohol at all.

Yes. They are professional tennis players, and alcohol has no place in sports.

- Even a glass of wine on vacation?

Vacation is relative. In sports, it is needed in order to give the head a break and prepare the body for work in the next season. The rest will end in a week or two, then heavy, intense training will resume. Therefore, this time should not be used for drinking alcohol. For athletes, it, like smoking, is completely contraindicated. In our family, both are absolutely not accepted.

Sasha said many times that apart from the origin of his parents, nothing connects him with Russia. In terms of his mentality, is he really more of a European?

My wife and I can be called Russians who live abroad. Many more years will pass, but we will remain Russian. But our children, I think, have become Europeans. Sasha was born already in Germany, Misha was born in Moscow, but went abroad at the age of four. However, many Russian features have been preserved. For example, both love our cuisine. My wife cooks wonderfully, and we often eat Russian dishes. In addition, at home we only speak Russian. I know many examples when a family tried to speak a mixture of two languages. In the end, the children still forgot Russian. My wife and I did not want this to happen, so we made this decision. Now the sons are fluent in three languages ​​- Russian, German and English, and can communicate in any country.

In the spring, Sasha made his debut for the German national team in the Davis Cup. Did you feel a surge of national pride in him?

It was a very important moment for him. Sasha was born and raised in Germany, and all his life he has been rooting for this country. In any sport - tennis or football. He himself has been playing for German tennis teams of various ages since the age of 12. And now he was invited to the national team! Naturally, we were very happy for our son.

Is it true that the whole of Germany - including influential officials, sponsors and tennis stars - is now behind Sasha, because there are no other bright players in the country?

The German Tennis Federation supported his son to the best of his ability. There is no Grand Slam tournament in the country, which brings a lot of money to tennis. Therefore, the bulk of investments in Sasha came from his older brother. The money he earned was spent on renting courts and paying for the most expensive trips to tournaments. Public support - yes, it takes place. German fans treat us very positively, they write warm words on social networks. This is not surprising: German tennis is at a good level, but it does not have bright stars besides Philipp Kohlschreiber. And then suddenly there was a strong player, besides such a young one. Naturally, there is now great interest in him both from the public and from specialists.

MATCHES FOR THE TEAM BECOMING AN EVENT

- You said that you would forever remain Russian in Germany. Was it hard to settle down in a foreign country?

The fact that we went abroad with the whole family greatly facilitated the process of assimilation. The invitation to work in Germany as a coach came to me several times, but every time I refused. In 1991, the USSR had already collapsed, the economic situation in the country was not very good, and my wife and I decided to try. Naturally, at first there were enough domestic problems. We found ourselves not only in a new country, but also in a completely different system. In addition, they did not speak German at all, and they did not speak English very well. We started studying with a private teacher and quickly learned the language. Gradually we got used to it, got used to it... When we lived in Germany for ten years, it became clear that there was no point in returning to Russia. And then we just changed citizenship.

- Was the Soviet tennis school so highly rated in the world that you were invited to Germany as a coach?

In general, many people from the East work in German tennis - Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians. As for your question... You know, the Soviet school of tennis has always been at a high level. Another thing is that politics imposed a lot of restrictions. Because of apartheid, the USSR announced a boycott of South Africa, and therefore we could not take part in the same competitions with South African tennis players. If they came to any tournament, we were obliged to immediately withdraw from it. The Soviet players had to play mainly in the socialist countries, and therefore there were almost no high-profile successes.

- You played many matches in the USSR national team in the Davis Cup. Which one is the most memorable?

Almost every match for the national team became an event because of its amazing atmosphere. Tennis is an individual sport, you get used to traveling the world alone and playing for yourself. And then a team gathered, which was together all week. And from a sporting point of view, the matches were of a high level. Sometimes it was even possible to present a real sensation, beating very strong opponents.

I remember well my first match in the Davis Cup. I was only 19 years old, I had to play with the Greeks. This team did not go among the leaders of world tennis, but the very fact of the debut made me very worried. I performed well then, we won 5:0. Or a play-off match for the right to play in the World League against the Austrian team in Jurmala! We were losing for a very long time, but then we were able to turn the tide of the fight and pulled out the victory.

Memorable was the meeting with Israel, which took place in September 1984 in Donetsk. It was very difficult, especially from a psychological point of view. You understand, the damned Zionist regime and so on... We were tormented by constant pumping, they said straight out: you can't lose this match! And we still won it. Or an away match with a very strong Argentina national team - because of the darkness, instead of three days, it stretched into four. Andrei Chesnokov snatched the decisive third point from his opponents already on Monday.

Have you ever had exotic trips?

One of the most extreme was the performance in Nigeria, where some fifty-thousanders took place. It was very hot and stuffy, serious problems arose with food. In addition, I was struck by the number of cars on the streets. It is now that traffic jams in Russia do not surprise anyone, but before there was not much transport in our country. In Nigeria, everything turned out to be clogged with cars, while no one followed any rules. Everyone rode as they wanted.

- Do you keep in touch with teammates?

Life has scattered us to different corners of the planet. Previously, my wife and I spent every vacation in Sochi, since we ourselves are from there. My brother stayed there, Irina has her parents. But after Misha began to play professionally, such an opportunity disappeared - the main tournaments are held just in the summer. I haven't been to Russia for a very long time. But if I suddenly meet with former partners somewhere abroad, I always remember the past with great pleasure.