Alexander Zverev, the defending champion, battled back from a set down to defeat Frenchman Hugo Gaston 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the Hamburg Open’s round of 16 on Thursday. Despite still recovering from a knee injury sustained at Wimbledon, Zverev showed resilience in countering Gaston’s drop shots. The first set went to Gaston after a 30-ball rally, which Zverev believed should have been stopped due to a double bounce. Zverev responded by breaking Gaston in the next game, ultimately taking the second set. The third set saw five breaks of serve before Zverev clinched the final break to lead 6-5 and then served out the match to 15 for the victory. The top-seeded German will face Chinese eighth seed Zhang Zhizhen, who defeated Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 7-6(5), in the quarterfinals.
Another impressive performance came from French fifth seed Arthur Fils, who overcame last year’s runner-up Laslo Djere 7-6(3), 6-2. Fils, last year’s semifinalist, secured his sixth tour-level quarterfinal this season. This consistency has propelled the 20-year-old to the top of the rankings in the ATP’s ‘Race to Jeddah’, the under-21 finals scheduled for December. While Fils has achieved just one final, claiming victory on clay in Lyon in May 2023, his strong performances highlight his potential. “When I’m practising super hard like I’m doing, of course I am able to show a great level and great fitness for a few hours,” Fils stated. “If a guy wants to beat me, it has to be tough. I am not going to let the match go.”
Fils will face second seed Holger Rune in the quarterfinals, who defeated Marco Trungelliti 6-4, 6-3 in 80 minutes. Rune expressed his determination to turn his round of 16 straight sets loss to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon into motivation. “It’s been very intense since Wimbledon. I only had one day off, actually,” said Rune on court. “I was like, ‘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.”
