It took many steps to bring Medvedev and Zverev to the brink, and in both cases, leaving Russia was a big one.

Zverev’s parents, Alexander Sr. and Irina, met in Sochi, the Russian resort city and tennis hub on the Black Sea. It was also the home of Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the first Russian man to be ranked No. 1 in the world in tennis, and it was where Maria Sharapova, a future women’s No. 1, spent her very early childhood before leaving with her father, Yuri, for the tennis academies of Florida, with less than $1,000 in cash in Yuri’s pocket.

Alexander Sr., an attacking player, came of age in the Soviet Union, where tennis was long viewed suspiciously as a bourgeois pursuit and where leading players often found it difficult to leave for international events. Stars did emerge, like Olga Morozova and Alex Metreveli, who both reached Wimbledon finals in the 1970s, and later Natasha Zvereva and Andrei Chesnokov, who both broke into the top 10 in singles and had an ongoing and risky tussle with Soviet authorities over how much of their prize money they could retain.

Alexander Sr. peaked at No. 175, and Irina, seven years younger, peaked at No. 380. Their oldest son, Mischa, was born in Russia, but the family moved to Germany in 1991, and Alexander, nicknamed Sascha, was born in Hamburg in 1997.

Source: New York Times

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