{"id":9412,"date":"2018-08-23T14:07:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T18:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=9412"},"modified":"2018-08-23T14:17:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T18:17:40","slug":"why-the-hurry-the-success-of-the-alexander-zverev-ivan-lendl-team-up-will-take-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/08\/23\/why-the-hurry-the-success-of-the-alexander-zverev-ivan-lendl-team-up-will-take-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Hurry? The Success of the Alexander Zverev-Ivan Lendl Team-up Will Take Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Zverev\u2019s announcement about Ivan Lendl joining his coaching team was fairly recent. However, it has been a development that looked to be the cards for a long time–<\/span>from March 2018. <\/span><\/p>\n

In these six months, Zverev continued to hem-and-haw his answers when periodically asked about Lendl joining his team. His declaration of the move now, therefore, comes across as him taking control over the narrative \u2013 of a “supercoach” joining his team, instead of acknowledging hints and insinuations, as it would have been earlier. <\/span><\/p>\n

Be as it may, Zverev\u2019s assertive announcement hasn\u2019t stopped predictions from being made about how successful this team-up would be in the days to come. It\u2019s understandable why and how such assessments are being formed, with Lendl\u2019s former days as Andy Murray\u2019s coach being broached about over and over again. <\/span><\/p>\n

The high-point of Lendl\u2019s coaching career has been described as him helping out Murray win two Wimbledon<\/a> titles. In many ways, it\u2019s indeed remarkable since each of Murray\u2019s Wimbledon wins came in each of Lendl\u2019s two separate coaching stints with the Brit. But Lendl\u2019s association of Murray is more than the number of Majors the latter won under his tutelage. <\/span><\/p>\n

On a macro-level, Lendl helped centre Murray\u2019s career \u2013 as someone who could continue to believe in himself, despite the numerous setbacks he faced in the Majors\u2019 finals \u2013 giving him an identity of a Major champion, much before Murray became one. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cut to Zverev, who has had his fair share of problems in doing well in the Slams, it is expected that Lendl would lead on a similar trajectory as Murray. Perhaps, even extended to where Murray had been left unexpectedly stranded. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, in this easy reminiscing, it has been just as quickly forgotten that the partnership between Lendl and Murray also took time to develop before it saw fruition in the form of Majors. The style of working that Lendl came to symbolise with his customary no-nonsense attitude was, then, perhaps the most effectual stamp which came to describe their coach-player relationship. <\/span><\/p>\n

The players\u2019 names have changed now, but there shouldn\u2019t be any doubting that Lendl\u2019s current coaching role would have the same distinctiveness as it did in the past. There is, however, the other side to this tale. That of Zverev\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, while it still remained unknown, Zverev spoke about Lendl potentially joining his coaching team. He observed in one of his press conferences, <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>He knows what it takes, he knows what it takes to win at every single level of our sport so he\u2019s definitely someone (who) can help a lot.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It sounded promising then, as it does now. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, along with any \u2013 and all \u2013 value-additions Lendl would bring to the table, the success of his collaboration with the German would also depend on the actual extent of Zverev\u2019s receptiveness in cooperating with him. With Zverev having relied on a strong familial set-up as his coaching unit, until now–which had seemingly become a point of contention with his then-coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, leading to the end of their partnership–it is to be expected that this would be a transitional period for both parties to get acclimated. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just as it this transitional phase will be a helpful gauge of Zverev\u2019s temperament–as a prospective Major champion and as the touted world No. 1 of the future–it would also help quiet the persistent murmurs as to whether there was any truth to what Ferrero had said about the 21-year-old\u2019s attitude, once and for all, one way or the other. <\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>