BMW Open in tennis: Munich triumph inspires Zverev: “To continue”

Before Alexander Zverev said goodbye in two days off and then towards Madrid, there was a chocolate cake for his birthday from the Munich tournament director Patrik Kühnen. It remained open whether the tennis star tried the sweet dessert. Regardless of this, he was able to leave the BMW Open extremely happily. The tournament victory at the sandplace event gave Zverev the certainty: he can still.

There had been increasing doubts in the past few weeks, and at six tournaments in succession it was not enough for a quarter -finals. “We no longer have to speak over the past few months,” said Zverev on Easter Sunday, “I want to leave it behind.”

Lederhosen, sports car, selfie with Söder

The Olympic champion from 2021 looks forward, with new courage after the final victory of Munich against Ben Shelton. Clearly 6: 2, 6: 4, the Hamburger had beaten the US Jungstar. With this he got plenty of confidence for the upcoming Masters tournaments in Madrid and Rome and the highlight of the clay court season, the French Open in Paris at the end of May.

“These are nice emotions, and I’ll take them into the next few weeks,” announced Zverev. Around 6,000 fans had serenade a 28th birthday at the Center Court. Then he slipped into the winning leather pants and had made a small round in the sports car. He couldn’t get out of the grin at all.

Gift from Barcelona: Return to world ranking place two

Papa Alexander Senior filmed the scenes with his cell phone, girlfriend Sophia Thomalla sang with the short happy Birthday insert. Football star Thomas Müller also cheered from the stands. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder made a selfie with Zverev when he presented the winner’s cup.

“It was one of the best weeks that you can have as a tennis player,” said Zverev visibly relieved. At the time in the afternoon, he did not even know that another gift from a distance should follow in the evening: Because the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz lost the final of Barcelona against Holger Runde, Zverev climbed back in second place behind leader Jannik Sinner (Italy).

Zverev no longer wants to look back

As a reward, the Hamburger announced that it would take two days to spend time with his family. Then Madrid’s Masters is coming up. On Tuesday morning he wants to fly to the Spanish capital.

It is quite possible that the ATP-500 tournament from Munich is the big turning point in Zverev’s tennis year. Above all, he picked out his comeback success against the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor. “I won a match in the quarter -finals that I should have lost. In the past few weeks it has been the other way around: I lost a lot of matches that I should have won.” But he doesn’t want to look back anymore.

Motivated for Madrid, Rome and Paris

After his third success at the BMW Open after 2017 and 2018, through which he equated with record winner Philipp Kohlschreiber, the fire was sparked for Madrid, Rome and Paris. “These are all tournaments that I actually like,” said Zverev. “I want to continue there.”

If that succeeds, he doesn’t have to be afraid. Final opponent Shelton had won games twice from Munich in the week. Zverev was too strong. The German showed hardly any weaknesses in the service and did not allow a single break chance for the American. “When my serve is running, the whole game comes after,” he said. He returned considerably and therefore deservedly won.

The fact that the hunger for success is back at Zverev could also be heard at the thank you message in the direction of his team. “We still have ten years of work ahead of us,” called the tennis star. And this work is then to be rewarded with the first Grand Slam victory he was looking for.