World number 3 Alexander Zverev cruised to a 6-3 6-2 win over Daniel Altmeier after 80 minutes in all German clash to reach the 99th quarter final of his career on the ATP Tour at the BMW Open in Munich.
Zverev has not reached the quarter final on Munich clay since he last won this tournament in 2019. He won this title twice in 2017 and 2018.
The German has not been able to get past the quarter finals in his six tournaments since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open. His wins against Alexandre Muller and Altmeier mark the first time he has won consecutive matches in Munich since he won this tournament in 2018.
Zverev converted four of his six break points.
Altmeier earned the only break point of the first set in the opening game. Zverev converted his second break point in the fourth game and held serve at love to open up a 4-1 lead. He served out the first set at 15.
The second set started with a trade of breaks. Zverev earned back-to-back breaks in the fifth and seventh games and converted his fourth match point to set up a quarter final match against Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, who beat German wild card Yannick Hanfmann 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
“Just the win made me happy. He makes it complicated. He has beaten lots of top players before. He’s beaten Jannik Sinner, he’s beaten me before, so he knows how to make it complicated. His shots may seem off at times, but he knows how to make it extremely complicated for the top guys, where we feel like we’re not feeling the ball well. So I’m extremely happy with the win and looking forward to the next match”, said Zverev.
Second seed Ben Shelton beat Dutchman Botic Vaan de Zandschulp 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 to reach his second quarter final on clay one year after his title run in Houston in 2024. Three days ago Shelton saved three match points to beat Borna Gojo in the first round.
Shelton became the youngest US quarter finalist in Munich since former world number 1 Jim Courier reached the same stage in 1990 at the age of 19.
Shelton earned a break in the second game to open up a 3-0 lead. Van de Zandschulp broke back in the seventh game and consolidated the break with a hold at 15 in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Shelton earned three mini-breaks to win the second set 7-1. Shelton broke twice in the first and ninth games to win the second set 6-3.
Shelton set up a quarter final match against Luciano Darderi, who came back from one set down to beat Miomir Kecmanovic 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4. Darderi reached the ATP Challenger final in Naples and won his second ATP 250 title in Marralesh.
