Zverev battles past Kovacevic in Hamburg
dpa
Hamburg
Top seed Alexander Zverev saw off American Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) on Monday as he opened his Hamburg Open quest on home clay in style.
The Hamburg-born player became the first German singles champion at the event for 30 years in 2023 and is looking for another success as the perfect preparation for the French Open starting on Sunday.
He thrilled the Am Rothenbaum crowd in an easy first set before being given more of a challenge in the second. He next faces Frenchman Alexandre Muller in the last 16.
'It was good. Especially the first set and a half was almost perfect,' said Zverev, who has won 13 of his last 15 matches in Hamburg.
'Obviously I'm extremely happy about the level and looking forward to the next matches.[In the second set] he started hitting the ball extremely hard and being unbelievably aggressive, and sometimes I was not in control of the rallies anymore. Credit to him, and I'm happy with the win.' Zverev hit 24 winners to just 12 unforced errors.
Arthur Fils beat Zverev in last year's final but the Frenchman is not competing this year.
Third seed Andrey Rublev sealed a 6-4, 6-3 win over Damir Dzumhur.
Brandon Nakashima, Roberto Bautista Agut and Jiri Lehecka also won through.
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