Hamburg [Germany], July 30 : Fourth seed Alexander Zverev stormed into the final of Hamburg European Open after defeating Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday. While Laslo Djere beat Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 6-2 to reach his first tour-level final of the season.
Zverev, a confident 19-year-old who had defeated top seed Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, gave Fils little opportunity to catch his breath with a hard-hitting, big-serving performance on the German clay in their first Lexus ATP Head2Head match.
“I knew that me and Casper have very different gamestyles, Casper plays with a lot more spin and a lot higher, something that Arthur maybe likes. I knew that I had to take the time away, I knew that I had to play a lot quicker and a lot flatter in a way. I did that well today, I feel like," Zverev said after the match as cited by atptour.com.
“It’s always the nicest at home, but at the end of the day it’s a very difficult match and I’m just looking forward to it,” added Zverev.
In the eighth game of the first set, Serbia's Djere secured the solitary break before gaining speed in the second game to easily win in an hour. The 28-year-old advanced into his first ATP Tour final since Winston-Salem in August 2022 without encountering a break point against Zhang.
“I’m extremely happy the way I played. Everything went my way today, I think this was my best match this year, at least on the clay. I didn’t give much chance to him today, luckily for me. He’s a great player, he has a huge serve. I also surprised myself a bit today, how I played,” Djere said.
“I will try to look at the final as any other match,” said Djere, whose only other ATP Tour title also came on clay in Sardinia in 2020. “I think that is key, not to make a big deal out of it. Obviously, there is a lot at stake, and the nerves might kick in at some point, but I think the key will be to stay calm and focused and relax like in [my previous] matches. Hopefully I will be able to manage it.”
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor