World No. 3 Alexander Zverev was the highest-ranked man to fall in an opening round riddled with upsets in a Wimbledon record this week. Following his shock defeat to France’s unseeded Arthur Rinderknech, the 2025 Australian Open finalist opened up about his perils on the competitive tennis circuit and the toll on his mental health.
Speaking to reporters after his 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (8/10), 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 loss in a four-hour 40-minute marathon on the Centre Court, Zverev said his middling performances were a product of his suffering mental state.
“I feel very alone out there at times. I struggle. Mentally, I’ve been saying that I’ve struggled since after the Australian Open. Just don’t know. Trying to find ways to get out of this hole. I keep finding myself back in it. I feel generally speaking quite alone in life at the moment, which is a feeling that is not very nice,” Zverev, ranked No. 3, said.
Zverev, who has never made it past the fourth round at the grass-court Slam, said that he is open to the idea of therapy while further elaborating his current state, ‘lacking joy’.
‘Never felt this empty’
“Maybe for the first time in my life I’ll probably need it. I’ve been through a lot of difficulties. I’ve been through a lot of difficulties in the media. I’ve been through a lot of difficulties in life generally.
“I’ve never felt this empty before. Just lacking joy, just lacking joy in everything that I do. It’s not necessarily about tennis. Just lacking joy outside of tennis, as well.
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“Even when I’m winning, even when I’m winning like in Stuttgart or Halle, it’s not necessarily, like, a feeling that I used to get where I was happy, over the moon, I felt motivated to keep going. It’s just not there right now for me, which, again, is the first time in my life which I’m feeling it,” Zverev said.
Besides Zverev, 12 other men’s seeds have fallen at the first hurdle — a Wimbledon record since 32 seeds were introduced in 2001. In the women’s singles draw, a total of nine seeds have been sent home already.
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