Alexander Zverev prevailed against Laslo Djere 7-5, 6-3 to become a hometown hero in Sunday final as he becomes the second German men’s singles champion at the Hamburg Open in 30 years.
The world No. 4 delivered a high class final display to become the 7th player this season to win an ATP title without dropping a set. Thanks to some big blitzing hitting, it took the German 1 hour and 51 minutes to close the match and lift trophy in Hamburg’s Am Rothenbaum.
Zverev has yet to break silence on fresh complaints of domestic abuse that once again stormed the tennis community last week. In his on court interview after the match the victorious homeboy acknowledged the positive home crowd and described his win as a very special one.
“At the end of the day, this is my home, this is where I grew up, and this where I started playing tennis,” said Zverev, who was competing in his first ATP Tour final since his run to the championship match at the Madrid Masters in May last year.
“It was incredible for me, incredibly emotional. I can’t describe it in words, I’m just super happy right now.”
“It’s almost like a first [title] again,” said Zverev of his 20th career title win that also put an end to Germany’s 30-year drought of home winner in men’s singles titles.
“It’s such a long time [since my previous title], 18 months, and I’m just super happy right now.”
In a quality-wise very high-standard encounter against the in-form Djere, who only lost three service games enroute to his maiden tour level final of the year, the 26-year old made quite a statement as he recorded some strong return game. Zverev converted three of his four break points against the Djere to improve his head-to-head 3-0 versus the tricky Serbian. The dominant win saw the German ruthlessly making the deep returns to never allow the 28-year old to settle and play his own game.
“I think he was the much better player throughout the first set. I just kind of stuck with it and dug it out somehow,” Zverev admitted.
“Credit to him, he’s one of the most respected guys on Tour, he’s doing all the right things. At the end, I’m just happy that it went the way it went.”
With his 20th tour-level title, the German has now moved up the order for the 9th place in ATP rankings which give him some good chances to earn a spot in the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals where he is a two time winner. However, Zeverv has to maintain the momentum if he wants to keep himself in the Race to Turin as American Taylor Fritz will regain the #9th spot if he bags the Atlanta final later on Sunday.