Zverev starts the grass court season in Halle with a three-set win
Alexander Zverev came through a tough opening test on Tuesday at the Terra Wortmann Open, where the German second seed lost to Oscar Otte 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.
Aiming to go one step further than his appearance in the Halle finals (2016, 2017), Zverev remained patient to take Otte out of the basic exchange and used the pressure moments with first strike tennis to improve.
“Last week, I was still playing on clay. You made it very difficult for me, there is no rhythm at all,” said Zverev in his court interview. “That’s how grass tennis is sometimes and I’m happy to win. He made it very difficult for me, so credit to him. Obviously I’m happy to win and hopefully it’s going to be better in the next match.”
Who has won the most singles titles at the Cinch Championships, held at the Queen’s Club, with five?
- John McEnroe
- Lleyton Hewitt
- Andy Murray
Who has won the most titles at the Terra Wortmann Open, held in Halle, with 10?
- Michael Stich
- Roger Federer
- Tommy Haas
Roger Federer has won the most grass court titles in history. How many 🏆 did you raise?
- 14
- 19
- 22
Which professional players have won the most eight grass court titles each?
- Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray
- Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal
- Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray
Which active player has the highest winning percentage on grass according to Infosys ATP Stats?
- Andy Murray
- Jannik Sinner
- Novak Djokovic
The eligible Otte presented constant challenges to Zverev, who often served and ate and caught the world number 4 with an off-pace slice. But the Roland Garros finalist held on to his heavy hitting, smashing 54 winners from his 40 unforced errors, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to win in two hours, 17 minutes under the roof of the OWL Arena.
Zverev improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Otte, who has upset the tour-ranked 22 times in both of their meetings. Otte led Zverev two sets-to-love in the first round of Roland Garros in 2021 before the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion roared back to win and later reach the semi-finals.
[ATP APP]The Roman champion, who is 35-10 this season, next looks to extend his perfect record to 3-0 against Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.
Otte, No. 474 in the PIF ATP Rankings, was competing in his first tour-level event since last year’s Wimbledon. The 30-year-old revealed on Instagram in August 2023 that a knee injury required surgery.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Source link
