‘Not true!’ – Alexander Zverev denies criticising Grand Slam legend

World number two Alexander Zverev has denied that he criticised former coach Ivan Lendl a short time after they split in 2019.

Zverev has not always had a smooth coaching history, and former Grand Slam legend Lendl is someone he worked with for a year starting in August 2018.

He was quoted by Die Welt in the Autumn of 2019 criticising Lendl, alleging he did not receive the Czech’s full attention during practice sessions.

“Sometimes we go to the training ground,” Zverev is alleged to have said in the interview. “Training lasts two hours. For half an hour he stands with his back to me and tells me how he played golf that morning.

“He’s got a new dog and is showing him how to go to the toilet. That’s really his main topic. And golf.”

However, he has now insisted the comments were ‘not true’ – or at least they were not new.

It was prompted by some news sources mistakenly claiming they were fresh quotes and reporting them this week, and the Zverev took to social media to claim they are simply the work of journalists struggling for content during the tennis off-season.

“So, apparently I gave an interview about my coaching relationship with Ivan Lendl recently, which is not true.

“In fact, I have not spoken to anyone from the press since my foundation event in Tannenhof one day after Turin and I have not made any comments about my coaching relationship with Ivan Lendl in more than five years.

“I understand that everybody is very bored right now because it is the off-season and not much is happening except a lot of hard work, but this shows once again that some stories have to be completely made up by very bad journalism to keep readers interested in made up drama…

“See u all soon in Australia.”

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