Alexander Zverev and girlfriend Sophia all smiles as they celebrate his close friend Marcelo Melo's birthday ahead of China Open

Alexander Zverev's girlfriend, Sophia Thomalla, reshared a moment from their celebrations on the occasion of former doubles partner Marcelo Melo's 42nd birthday at a place where it all first started.

The deep friendship between Zverev and Melo started when the two met in Beijing a decade ago. Now, ahead of the China Open in Beijing, it was a perfect time to reunite with his close friend and he came along with his birthday cake.

On Tuesday, Sophia reshared a photo first posted by Melo thanking the German model and Zverev for the surprise. She tagged the location Beijing, China.

Sophia Thomalla's Instagram story

Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev have participated in several tournaments together as a doubles pair. They reached the final at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters. Moreover, they have won events like the 2024 Cincinnati Masters, where they secured a win in a match tie-break.

From playing FIFA in Stockholm to lifelong friends, Alexander Zverev spills the beans on friendship with Marcelo Melo

Marcelo Melo is 13 years older than Alexander Zverev, but that hardly proved to be an obstacle as they both started their friendship with things as mundane as playing FIFA in a room. In an interview with ATP Tour, Zverev shared his account of how their friendship began after meeting in Beijing 10 years ago.

"My theory is that we became friends in Beijing in 2015," Zverev said. "The first time we talked was in the locker room. Then we both came to Stockholm early, had nothing to do, so we went to a sushi place together and bought a PlayStation 4. We started playing FIFA – that was the beginning of our friendship. The friendship started because we were so bored and just started playing FIFA in Stockholm."

Zverev compared their friendship to 'little kids,' hanging out together, playing video games. The German star, who is a three-time Grand Slam finalist, added:

"We play games. We’re like two little kids basically. Play golf, go karting, laser tag, Mario Kart... As we are on tour doing it all year, a lot of stress playing tennis, especially for him playing singles and doubles – we've got to find some time to have fun as friends. We go out, sometimes play bowling. Once in Tokyo, we played every day... My arm was so sore I couldn’t practice for a few days. We played every single day for an hour and a half."

The duo often likes to travel together on holidays and vacations. Zverev predicts that in 10 years, Melo will start coaching, but when the latter was asked whether he would like to coach the German, he turned down the offer.

Edited by Krutik Jain