By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday July 18, 2024
The German overcame a difficult call in the opening set and rallied past Hugo Gaston in three.
Photo Source: TTV
It will be a star-studded weekend at the Hamburg Open, as seven of the top eight seeds have progressed to the quarterfinals at the ATP 500 event.
With the Olympics games looming next week in Paris, players are looking to fine-tune their clay games and shake the grass out of their system.
A good process so far, for defending Olympic Gold medalist Alexander Zverev, who reached the quarterfinals with a gritty 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over Hugo Gaston on Thursday to book a quarterfinal with China’s Zhang Zhizhen.
He lost the opening set on a missed double bounce call and argued the point vehemently to no avail. After the match the German said that tennis needs to incorporate VAR technology for similar situations in the future.
Replays show that the ball did bounce a second time before Gaston played his forehand.
"These kinds of things can cost a player the match,” Zverev said. “It cost me the set today, which is very unfortunate – but it’s not about the umpire, she’s a very good umpire. Us as a tour, I think we should do more and use the technology that we have.”
Defending Hamburg champion Zverev, this year’s Rome champion, improved to 42-12 on the season, but he is still dealing with a knee injury after hyperextending his right knee during his win over Cameron Norrie in the third round at Wimbledon.
“We’ll see how it feels late evening and tomorrow morning,” Zverev said.
Holger Rune, the No.2 seed, also moved through, 6-4, 6-3, over Marco Trungelliti, as did Arthur Fils, who took out 2023 runner up Laslo Djere 7-6(3), 6-2.
20-year-old Fils, the youngest player in the ATP’s Top-50, rallied from 15-40 down at 4-4 in the opening set and saved six of seven break points overall to set a quarterfinal with Rune.
Rune converted three of six break points to ease past Argentina’s Trungelliti – he’s the first Dane to reach the quarterfinals in Hamburg in the Open Era.
21-year-old Rune lost to Novak Djokovic in the fourth round at Wimbledon. He says he has been hungry ever since.
“It’s been very intense since Wimbledon I only had one day off, actually,” said Rune in his on-court interview. "I [said to myself] ‘I don’t want to rest, I want to go straight back to practice’, because I was very disappointed. I went straight back to work on the things that needed to be done, and now I have the chance to train those things in matches.”
Rune told Inside Sport that he feels confident about his chances as he prepares for his Olympic debut.
“I am very confident,” he said. “I feel like I can do it.”
Rune, who is 25-14 on the season with no titles thus far, also told Inside Sport that he feels like he is a better player this season, compared to where he was in 2023.
“I was not playing that well last year after Wimbledon, and I feel like I am better physically and mentally now than last year,” he said. “I feel like I am going in the right direction. I am only 21 years old, so I can only be better from here.”
Here is the full quarterfinal lineup for Hamburg: