Wimbledon: Zverev calls journalists' question about Becker "stupid"

Alexander Zverev has clearly tempered public expectations of top German tennis talent Justin Engel. Media comparisons to Boris Becker are "stupid," the world number three complained at Wimbledon. "Boris won Wimbledon at 17, Justin Engel isn't playing here."

The 17-year-old is a "super player," but also still very young. "You don't need to compare him to Boris, you don't need to compare him to me either," Zverev told the journalists. "Leave the boy alone – in two or three years we'll see how good he is."

Engel recently celebrated two surprising victories at the ATP tournament in Stuttgart. This made him the youngest tour quarterfinalist on grass since Boris Becker's Wimbledon triumph 40 years ago. Engel is now ranked 219th in the world.

"He still has a lot of work ahead of him," Zverev emphasized. "He shouldn't think: I need this result to catch up with Boris, with me, or anyone else. He has to keep developing."

Starting Monday, the only other German men competing at Wimbledon will be Jan-Lennard Struff and Daniel Altmaier, alongside Zverev. The last time there were so few German male professionals in the main draw was in 1983.

"In two or three years, that will change; we're currently in an interim phase," Zverev said of the current situation in German men's tennis. "The older generation is well over 30, the younger generation is under 20 – and in the 10 or 15 years in between, we don't have much. The new generation is coming along nicely."

RND/dpa