Wimbledon star advised to take break from tennis after emotional confession

Alexander Zverev has been advised to take a break from tennis by Andrey Rublev after the German admitted that he may need therapy. Zverev lost a five-set match against Arthur Rinderknech, that spanned two days, at Wimbledon earlier this week.

He then admitted: "Maybe for the first time in my life I'll probably need [therapy].

"I've been through a lot of difficulties. I've been through a lot of difficulties in the media. I've been through a lot of difficulties in life generally. I've never felt this empty before. Just lacking joy, just lacking joy in everything that I do. It's not necessarily about tennis. Just lacking joy outside of tennis, as well.

"Even when I'm winning, even when I'm winning like in Stuttgart or Halle, it's not necessarily, like, a feeling that I used to get where I was happy, over the moon, I felt motivated to keep going. It's just not there right now for me, which, again, is the first time in my life which I'm feeling."

Zverev also confessed that he feels "very alone and very lonely." The concerns about tennis players' welfare were put to Rublev after he booked his place in round three.

And the No. 14 seed said: "To be honest, it's nothing to do with tennis. It's about the same thing. It's just you can find excuse how exhausted or mentally tired from playing nonstop, nonstop, but it's nothing to do with tennis.

"In the end, tennis is just the trigger point. It's something inside of you that you need to face. It happens to everyone, because Sascha, he really loves tennis, and Casper and things like that, and many players, they do love tennis. The ones who don't love, who don't like tennis, they are more relaxed.

"They don't really - they don't really care because maybe they have different priorities, but the ones who love tennis, the tennis triggers you.

"You tell them to, tell Sascha or someone to take a break. It will get tough for him to take a break. He would love to play. For sure, Casper, maybe, for him it's not also easy. Maybe now because it's grass, but for sure it's not easy for him to take a break. For sure, I'm sure he's practicing. He's not just, okay, I take break and laying on a beach. For sure, he's preparing.

"So, yeah, like I said, it's nothing to do with tennis. Tennis is just the trigger moment."