Alexander Zverev finally has his much-awaited Grand Slam title after so many years of near misses.
This feels like one of the more justified triumphs in recent memory, having lost his three previous major finals before yesterday.
However, despite all the justified celebration over this achievement, there is an underlying negativity that could actually derail his career going forward.
It is a big ‘if’, but it is a possibility that nobody seems to be talking about.
Why Alexander Zverev’s Roland Garros title could make him worse
After all, most of the conversation surrounding Zverev has been about whether the lifting of this Grand Slam burden will help him kick on to win more.
However, it is worth arguing that the exact opposite could instead happen.
How many more Grand Slams does Alexander Zverev win now?
What a final!
This has been the German’s life’s work, with his entire career, particularly the last few years, having been specifically designed to reach this outcome.
Now that he has done it, finally climbing the mountain, could this strip away his motivation?
After all, Alexander Zverev will still have Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner to deal with for the rest of his career. Winning Roland Garros will not instantly make him a better player than these two.
For someone who has trained so hard and played so much tennis to have finally achieved his ultimate goal, there is certainly a possibility that instead of boosting his desire to win more majors, it actually brings him the contentment that quells his threat at such tournaments.
Obviously, this is all speculative, but given the current discourse has only really considered the positive outcome, it is worth delving into other alternatives.
How Alexander Zverev could suffer from Dominic Thiem’s problem
The perfect example of this, rather ironically, comes from Dominic Thiem.
After all, having beaten Zverev in the 2020 US Open final, the Austrian later spoke about how finally conquering his ultimate goal of winning a major title actually destroyed his motivation going forward.
Whilst everyone is backing the German to kick on following his Roland Garros triumph, there’s every chance he could instead follow in Thiem’s footsteps, particularly given how pressurised and stressful his journey to this stage has been.
The 32-year-old, who retired in 2024, claimed: “There are players who celebrate great success who are spurred on by that, who are pushed even further to perform even better, who are immediately on fire to win the next Grand Slam title. It wasn’t like that for me; I’m a different guy.
“It took me a while before I accepted that, that I’m a bit harder on myself than some others. What I certainly also had to learn is that it is only up to me and I have to regulate it myself.”
