Alexander Zverev’s grandmother unable to enter UK for Wimbledon final | Tennis | Sport

Alexander Zverev has revealed his grandmother will not be able to attend the Wimbledon final as she still has a Russian passport and does not have a visa. Following his semi-final victory over British wildcard Arthur Fery, he answered a question on if his grandmother would be heading to London after she appeared in his box for the French Open final last month.

When asked if she would again be present, Zverev admitted: “She doesn’t have a visa. She unfortunately has a Russian passport still, so…” He later added: “It was great when she was there [at Roland Garros]. I hope, or I know that our chancellor is coming to the final.

“Maybe he can help with a passport or a longer visa for her, and then she can stay a bit longer, but she had to go back after 90 days.” The No.2 seed stormed to victory on Friday afternoon as he beat Fery in straight sets.

Despite such a dominant display in SW19, Zverev was extremely complimentary of his opponent after the victory. He said on the BBC: “To be honest i have to give credit to two things. First of all arthur, an unbelievable player, i think he’s going to be a senior citizen on our tour because i think he’s going to play on this tour for 15-plus years and is going to have great results.

“I think this was just the beginning of his career and I think he’s going to do amazing things for this sport. And then for me the second thing is something that’s incredible here. Yes I know that 99.99 percent of the stadium was wanting Arthur to win but it was still such an incredible atmosphere, it was such a fair crowd as well.”

With his victory coming before the other semi-final, Zverev had a funny response to being asked if it matters who is on the other side of the net. He said: “I hope I can play a junior, that would be great! Whether it’s the defending champion or someone who’s won here 48 times in Djokovic, it’s not going to be easy whoever it’s against but I have to trust myself and believe I can win.

It was later confirmed that Sinner will meet him on Centre Court on Sunday after his impressive win over Djokovic. Zverev enters that clash as the underdog having lost his last nine matches against the defending champion.

However, the former does have some momentum after winning his first Grand Slam title in Paris last month. He beat Flavio Cobolli in that final, which was who Fery defeated to reach the semi-finals and despite his defeat, the 23-year-old looks set for a huge future in tennis with his run to the final four seeing him move up to 36th in the ATP Tour rankings.