Alexander Zverev fulfilled a childhood dream at his home tournament: the 26-year-old tennis Olympic champion won the title at Hamburg’s Rothenbaum. Zverev prevailed in the final on Sunday 7: 5, 6: 3 against the Serb Laslo Djere and was the first German player to triumph at the Alster since Michael Stich in 1993.
For Zverev it was the 20th tournament victory of his career and the first since the ATP Finals 2021. His last participation in the final dated from May 2022 before the German number one was seriously injured at the French Open and was out for months.
Four breakballs saved
Against Djere, in front of 10,000 spectators, Zverev was not upset at the beginning by a short interruption due to heavy rain. A tight game developed under a closed roof, in which Zverev came under pressure when the score was 4: 4, but fended off four breakballs with class and nerves of steel. Shortly thereafter, the former world number two grabbed it himself.
Pirmin Clossé, London Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 8 Petra Philippsen, Hamburg Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 1 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 41
The local hero stayed on in the second set, hardly made any mistakes of his own and took the serve from Djere to make it 3-1. Djere came back again, but couldn’t dissuade Zverev from his mission.
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