“I feel very alone out there at times. I struggle mentally. … I’m trying to find ways to kind of get out of this hole.” This has been Alexander Zverev’s plight. He couldn’t comprehend what’s been wrong with him this season. After he faced yet another setback at a slam, the German couldn’t resist sharing his true emotions. The World No.3 failed to turn his longtime dream into reality in Melbourne. Fate remained unrelenting in Paris. And most recently, he also exited Wimbledon, having made no mark. However, he has now begun to gradually lift his spirits to pursue the goal once again. In the last month, he appears to have found a new ray of hope, and a shot at redemption.

Following his Wimbledon loss in the first round, Zverev was spotted spending a lot of time with 22-time slam champion Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni Nadal. Seemingly, the German star went to Mallorca to train at Nadal’s academy. After imbibing valuable insights from Toni, Zverev expressed, “It was phenomenal, I worked very hard with Tony for several days.” But the blaring question looms: is Toni in for the long run? “I’m still trying to convince him to spend a few weeks on the Tour with me, but he’s very busy,” Zverev said ahead of his Canadian Open campaign a few days back.

And now, Zverev has some substantial updates on a possible collaboration with Nadal’s uncle. During an episode of the Nothing Major podcast, dated August 1, he reiterated his thoughts on last month’s training session with Toni: “I loved the week. I enjoyed it a lot. I think Toni enjoyed it as well. I spent quite a lot of time with Rafa as well, which was very nice of him to do.” And then came the much-awaited response.

Is Toni going to stick around with Zverev through the remainder of this season? “I am not sure how much you’re going to see of Toni this year because his schedule is quite packed, right? Like he has, he’s giving a lot of speeches, he’s got a lot of things to do with the academy.” But Zverev then added, “I think starting from next year, you might see him a lot more.”

Lately, Zverev has been busy at the Canadian Open in Toronto, and it appears that the German has regained some momentum. He’s already scored two straight wins this week. With his latest victory, Zverev has accomplished an extremely special milestone, one that even his top rivals like Alcaraz and Sinner haven’t been able to achieve.

Alexander Zverev beats Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner with an impressive milestone

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have won a total of 9 slams combined. But given the fact that they are still early in their careers, the World No.1 and No.2 are yet to achieve many feats. However, Alexander Zverev has already bested them with one rare record.

This week, Zverev snagged the win during his R32 encounter against Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in Toronto. He beat him with a scoreline of 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. With that, Zverev became the fifth active man to register 500 ATP match wins. Remarkable, isn’t it? Plus, he’s the seventh-fastest player to reach the feat this century.

“It’s a great achievement. There’s not a lot of players that reached that milestone,” he reacted on his milestone as reported by ATP Tour’s website on August 1. “Of course I still want 500 more hopefully to come, and maybe even more! When you start your career, you wish to play on Tour, you wish to have a successful career, win as many matches as possible. I think 500 is definitely a milestone, and I’m happy about that.”

He’s now joined an elite list featuring the Big Three. Nadal leads it as he was the fastest to reach 500 ATP wins, in 605 matches. In second spot is the 24-time slam king Djokovic. The Serbian attained the feat in 627 encounters. Federer also took the same amount of matches to score his 500 ATP victories.

Coming back to Zverev, he will currently look to perform well at the Canadian Open. A deep run or title triumph may provide the much-needed push. It will probably motivate him for the US Open. Do you think he can make his slam dream come true in New York? Or is there still time? Let us know in the comments below.