An emotional Alexander Zverev has returned to the winner’s circle after claiming his first title for 18 months at the Hamburg Open on Sunday.
The world No.19 beat Serbia’s Laslo Djere 7-5, 6-3 to claim his maiden ATP trophy in his city of birth. Zverev broke his opponent three times and won 77% of his first service points during what was his first Tour final since returning to action earlier this year following an ankle injury. It is his 33rd win of the season.
“At the end of the day, this is my home, this is where I grew up, and this where I started playing tennis,” atptour.com quoted Zverev as saying. “It was incredible for me, incredibly emotional. I can’t describe it in words, I’m just super happy right now.”
Zverev is the fifth man in 2023 to have won an ATP title without dropping a set throughout the entire tournament. Earlier in the week he scored wins over Alex Molcan, Maximillian Marterer, Luca Van Assche and Arthur Fils. He has also become the first German player to win Hamburg since Michael Stich in 1993.
Hamburg in the 20th trophy the 26-year-old has won in his career and his first in over a year. Zverev missed the second half of the 2022 season due to injury.
“It’s almost like a first [title] again,” he said. “It’s such a long time [since my previous title], 18 months, and I’m just super happy right now.”
Zverev has shown glimmers of returning to the top of his game in recent weeks. At the French Open, he reached the semi-finals before losing in straight sets to Casper Ruud. He also reached the last four of two other ATP 500 events in Halle and Dubai, as well as a 250 tournament in Geneva.
Zverev has now risen to ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as he seeks to secure a spot in the ATP Finals which he has won on two previous occasions. However, Taylor Fritz could take the ninth position away from him later today if he wins his match at the Atlanta Open.
