Alexander Zverev's girlfriend Sophia Thomalla hails David Beckham's mother as a "genius" for putting ex-England manager on her 'hit list'

By Urvi Mehra

Modified Oct 17, 2023 07:23 GMT

Alexander Zverev's girlfriend Sophia Thomalla has expressed her admiration for David Beckham's mother, Sandra, following her appearance in her son's documentary, "Beckham."

The four-episode docuseries, which premiered on Netflix earlier this month, has garnered significant attention on social media. The documentary chronicles Beckham's remarkable evolution, tracing his path from a talented schoolboy in East London to one of the greatest football players of his generation.

England's campaign at the 1998 FIFA World Cup is prominently featured in the documentary. Despite participating in all of the qualifying games for the World Cup, Beckham was notably sidelined from England's first two games after manager Glenn Hoddle had publicly accused him of not focusing on the tournament.

Their conflict escalated after Beckham's infamous red card incident during England's Round of 16 game against Argentina, as Hoddle openly held Beckham responsible for the team's loss and subsequent exit from the World Cup.

David Beckham's mother Sandra recalled the incident during the documentary and disclosed that she had put Hoddle on her "hit list" for his treatment of her son.

"Glenn Hoddle said his head wasn’t in the right place (before Tunisia), didn’t he? I just put him on my hit list – people that upset me. When I watched Glenn Hoddle’s interview I thought ‘No, what have you done?’

"He made it that it was David’s fault, and we’d been used to a manager, Alex Ferguson, who never spoke about his team. They just blamed him after that," she said.

Alexander Zverev's girlfriend Sophia Thomalla shared a screenshot of the scene on social media and praised David Beckham's mother as a genius.

"David Beckham's mom is a genius," she posted on her Instagram story.

Alexander Zverev suffers shock 1R defeat to Jordan Thompson at Japan Open

Following his shock opening round exit from the 2023 Shanghai Masters, Alexander Zverev suffered a first-round defeat to Jordan Thompson at the Japan Open.

The Australian claimed a 6-3, 6-4 win over Zverev to advance to the second round of the ATP 500 event. The victory was his second over a top 10 opponent this season, having beaten then-World No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas at Indian Wells.

Following his defeat, World No. 9 Zverev acknowledged his "horrible" performance in the match and said that he was at a loss for words. Despite his disappointment, the German gave due credit to Thompson, praising his opponent's serve in particular.

"Today I played horrible. He played quite good. He served quite good, but it's just a very, very bad match for me. I don't know what to say," Alexander Zverev said, as quoted by Eurosport.

Following his win over Alexander Zverev, Jordan Thompson will take on the winner of Ben Shelton and Taro Daniel in the second round.