The ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Munich casts its shadows ahead: Last year’s winner Alexander Zverev has already received a trophy.
Budapest and Barcelona are the stops where the German tennis pros will serve this week. Mischa Zverev and Peter Gojowczyk have already retired in Catalonia, Jan-Lennard Struff, Maximilian Marterer and Yannik Maden are doing better in the Hungarian capital so far. With the exception of Gojowczyk, these players will travel on to Munich for the coming week – and get newcomers.
Alexander Zverev, titleholder at the BMW Open, and Philipp Kohlschreiber, triple winner of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament at MTTC Iphitos, have saved themselves further tournament appearances after Monte Carlo. A year ago both had travelled to Barcelona, now Zverev and Kohlschreiber are preparing meticulously on the training grounds in Oberhaching and probably Monte Carlo.
For Germany’s number one is to prolong its strong form: At the last two ATP Masters 1000 events in Miami and Monte Carlo Zverev had reached the final weekend, had lost to John Isner in the final match against Kei Nishikori at the Cote d´Azur in the semi-finals. In the Principality in the audience and quite certainly also in the at least friendly exchange with Alexander Zverev: Boris Becker.
At the start of the Munich tournament, he will now honour the 21-year-old native of Hamburg: During the Players´ Night Zverev will receive the Iphitos Award on Monday, with a laudation from the triple Wimbledon Champion. Becker knows exactly what this award means, after all, he received it himself last year.
Zverev himself arrived in Munich on Friday and from today, Saturday, he will be competing in the places where he had already started with a wildcard at the age of 16.
Alexander Zverev should also be considered a big favourite for the title – even if Fabio Fognini or Roberto Bautista-Agut will be at least two sand court experts at the start. In addition there is Andrey Rublev, a man who tortured Dominic Thiem in Monte Carlo.
And Hyeon Chung is one of those players Zverev has already lost to this year: The South Korean prevailed in five sets at the Australian Open, as he did a year ago in Barcelona. Alexander Zverev has yet to win.