{"id":2574,"date":"2026-08-01T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2574"},"modified":"2026-08-01T13:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:00:16","slug":"alexander-zverev-reveals-how-rafael-nadal-gave-him-a-great-help-ahead-of-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2574","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev reveals how Rafael Nadal gave him a \u2018great help\u2019 ahead of US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Zverev<\/a> says that Rafael Nadal\u2019s recent advice during his training at the Spaniard\u2019s academy has been a \u2018great help\u2019 as he begins his North American hard-court swing.<\/p>\n

The German has enjoyed a landmark 2026 season, with the highlight being the capture of his maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open.<\/p>\n

Zverev<\/a> defeated Flavio Cobolli in five sets to end his run of three consecutive defeats in Grand Slam finals.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks later, the newly crowned Paris champion looked like a different player on the grass courts of Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

He dropped just two sets en route to the final, having never previously reached the last eight at the event, and displayed a remarkable combination of aggression and precision.<\/p>\n

Despite losing to Jannik Sinner<\/a> in four sets, Zverev has leapfrogged Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the rankings to rise to world No 2 for the first time since March 2025.<\/p>\n

The German will now turn his attention to the season\u2019s final Grand Slam, the US Open, which takes place from August 30 to September 13.<\/p>\n

After taking a few weeks to rest, Zverev travelled to Mallorca to practise at the Rafa Nadal Academy, where he has been closely watched by Toni Nadal and the 22-time Grand Slam champion himself.<\/p>\n

Latest Tennis News<\/h2>\n

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A post shared by Rafa Nadal Academy (@rafanadalacademy)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt has been a good year. Of course, the year is not over, and we\u2019re going to the North American Swing and two Masters and a Grand Slam coming up, which is very important,\u201d stated the world No 2 during a video on the academy\u2019s social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I\u2019m here [at the Rafael Nadal Academy] to prepare for that, and hopefully I\u2019ll show my best there as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Mallorca in general, so it\u2019s just a great island to be in, I think, in the summer, especially with great preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a lot of heat here, which you will need in America as well. And the facilities are incredible. I think it\u2019s quite obviously one of the best academies in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can also have privacy here, which is very nice for me and I enjoy coming back here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great. Uncle Toni is on the court quite a lot with us. Rafa also came twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to hear what their opinion is about my game. I think I\u2019ve been playing against Rafa for 10 years, so it\u2019s nice to hear from him from a competitive standpoint, but also what he thinks I can improve in my game, and I still want to improve every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a great help to have him on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zverev has been remarkably consistent at the US Open, reaching the quarter-finals or better in four of his last five appearances.<\/p>\n

In 2020, he led by two sets and a break against Dominic Thiem<\/a> in the final before being edged out in a fifth-set tiebreak.<\/p>\n

Twelve months ago, the German suffered his earliest exit at the tournament in seven years, losing to Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> in the third round.<\/p>\n

Before the US Open, Zverev will compete at the National Bank Open in Canada (August 2\u201313) and the Cincinnati Open (August 13\u201323), with both tournaments being Masters 1000 events.<\/p>\n

The post Alexander Zverev reveals how Rafael Nadal gave him a \u2018great help\u2019 ahead of US Open<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Zverev says that Rafael Nadal\u2019s recent advice during his training at the Spaniard\u2019s academy has been a \u2018great help\u2019 as he begins his North American hard-court swing. The German has enjoyed a landmark 2026 season, with the highlight being the capture of his maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open. Zverev defeated Flavio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}