From the children’s room, Alexander Zverev proudly presented the trophy for the triumph at the Hamburg home tournament alongside Sophia Thomalla. The 26-year-old sat his girlfriend snuggled up to him on the bed, with many trophies in the background – “if things continue like this, we’ll always have to stay here now,” Thomalla joked about the photo that she shared via Instagram.
The first title after his severe ankle injury at the French Open more than a year ago seemed like a liberation for the Olympic champion from Hamburg. “It was never certain whether I could return to this level,” Zverev recalled emotionally of his long period of suffering. “Hopefully it will be a fresh start, the last 12 months have been difficult. Hopefully we don’t have to wait 18 months for me to lift a trophy again.”
Since the ATP Finals in November 2021 – and thus even more than the year and a half – Zverev had not won a tournament. At the French Open two months ago, he had already indicated his potential again by reaching the semifinals – and now sees himself well on the way to an earlier top condition. “I think I played better than in Paris. It will get better and hopefully it can get even better in the coming weeks,” said the former world number two after Germany’s first victory in Hamburg since Michael Stich in 1993.
Becker zu Zverev: “You should be proud of yourself”
In the ranking, Zverev is slowly working his way back up to 16th place and can continue to hope in the race to participate in the ATP finals at the end of the year. After the dominant triumph at Rothenbaum without losing a set, Zverev is in tenth place and just behind the top eight that are allowed to be there in Turin. “Incredible performance on home soil,” praised Boris Becker via Instagram. “You should be proud of yourself.”
The criticism of a lack of further development from experts such as Becker, Michael Stich
Zverev has already demonstrated this progress on sand in Hamburg, where he had rejected allegations of personal injury before the start of the tournament. After the short return to the chosen home Monte-Carlo at the beginning of the week, the next step on hard court should follow.
On Wednesday, Zverev will fly to Canada for the tournaments in North America. The Masters events in Toronto and Cincinnati are coming up there – before Zverev wants to chase his big dream of the first Grand Slam triumph again at the US Open at the end of August. “That has been the goal for a few years, last year I was very close, in 2020 I was very close,” he said, “maybe it will be something at some point.”
