Alexander Zverev wins the ATP tournament in Munich after “difficult months”. In the final he shows his best performance.
Alexander Zverev tore his arms up, slightly put his head on the neck and then enjoyed the “happy birthday” with a sly smile, which the audience smashed towards him after thunderous applause. After a sovereign final victory at the ATP tournament in Munich, the Hamburger initially freed himself from his crisis on his 28th birthday. After the safe 6: 2, 6: 4 against Ben Shelton from the USA, he rose to the leather pants with a recognizable pleasure, among other things for the winner of the BMW Open.
“It was a few difficult months for us, so it’s always nice to take a trophy home with you,” said Zverev, while father Alexander Senior held the long missing moments with his cell phone. The junior also thanked the spectators.
“Without you I would be in Madrid. On Friday I was already out of it, now I am here with the trophy,” he said in retrospect of the quarter -finals, in which the audience had carried him out of the Netherlands to win him against Tallon Griekspoor.
Zverev also impresses Thomas Müller
In the final, Zverev showed his sovereign performance of the tournament week in Munich. Shelton, number 15 of the world rankings, could not be dangerous to the number one world number in the world rankings.
After 71 minutes, Zverev used his first match ball before the eyes of the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder and football world champion Thomas Müller. He can now look forward to the other clay court season with the French Open (from May 25th) as the highlight.
At the tournament at the MTTC Iphitos facility, Zverev won the title for the third time after 2017 and 2018 – he is now a record winner together with Philipp Kohlschreiber. In addition to grown self-confidence, the 24th tournament victory of his career also brought him prize money of 467,485 euros and an electric car from tournament sponsor BMW worth 146,736 euros. And for the third time the mandatory leather pants.
Tennis: Trend reversal for Zverev
For Zverev, victory in Munich could trigger the hoped -for trend reversal after the last disappointment. After the defeat in the final of the Australian Open against the world ranking list of Jannik Sinner, he had not passed the quarter -finals in the following six tournament participation.
This time Zverev prevailed against Griekspoor in the round of the last eight in three contested sentences – a kind of turning point: “I have lost many such matches in the past few months. I hope that was a bit the match where my season and shape change,” he said afterwards.
Zverev is now traveling to the two Masters tournaments in Madrid and Rome – this is followed by the French Open in Paris (from May 25th). Last year he won in Rome and lost the final against Carlos Alcaraz in five sets in Paris, so he has to defend a lot of points in the world rankings. The 500 points he receives from the upgrading of the Munich tournament come.