Alexander Zverev has to beat Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner to stay relevant, claims Andy Roddick brutally

World No. 3 Alexander Zverev is 28 years old, but has yet to win a Grand Slam. In the early half of his career, he battled the dominance of Big Three, including Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and just when they were coming of age, two new tennis stars have taken the sport by storm. They are Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, and both of them combined are yet to concede a major title in the past two years.

Zverev has suffered the most during this transition, and he has his own self to blame as well. The injuries and his inability to defeat top-ranked opponents have plagued his career.

On Wednesday, former ATP star Andy Roddick shared his brutal take on how Zverev's career will be defined if he doesn't find a way to defeat Sinner and Alcaraz.

"There’s a massive, it’s realistic, it’s fair, and it also sucks, that his entire career is going to be defined by whether he can beat those guys twice in a row in a major and win one," Roddick said (56:40) on his Served podcast. "That’s it. That’s the entire thing. He knows it."

In 2025, Zverev reached the final of the Australian Open, but he couldn't outmatch Jannik Sinner, who won his third career Grand Slam in Melbourne Park. There were some notable moments for the German this year, including securing his 500th career tour-level win at the Toronto Masters and qualifying for the ATP Finals for the eighth time in the last nine seasons. However, a Grand Slam still evades him.

Andy Roddick shares improvement areas for Alexander Zverev ahead of 2026 season

Adding more about Alexander Zverev, Andy Roddick shares his point of view, acknowledging that he has had an amazing and phenomenal career. Roddick pointed out some technicalities that can make Zverev better and also asked the German to be ultra-aggressive from the get-go.

"Serve and volley a little bit more," Roddick said. "Do these things where every point of aggression isn't about picking out the right ball and doing something uncomfortable three or four shots into a rally. I think it's about blunt-force, trauma-type aggression, where you're choosing to do this and play this way from the first ball, and then all of a sudden it makes your stock game of wanting to drift back a little bit more effective. "I think playing the back end inside-out from the return position sometimes, to where people aren't just stepping left to kind of receive your ball, is key."

Zverev has an important 2026 season to look ahead to. As he ages and loses his superiority on the court, there are not a lot of years left for him to stamp his authority. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are going nowhere, so the German will need to develop the belief that he can beat those guys and let his skills do the talking.

Edited by Krutik Jain