Despite the shame, Zverev reaches the quarterfinals with anger in his stomach
In the first sentence, Hugo Gaston causes a major dispute with a point. Alexander Zverev shouts and complains fiercely at the umpire. The tennis Olympian is hardly calmed down and even speaks of a "disgrace". In the end, however, the local matador manages to make it to the quarterfinals.
Alexander Zverev shouted angrily, the tennis Olympian even spoke of a "disgrace". But after the end of a heated quarterfinal at the Rothenbaum in Hamburg, the local matador found his smile back - through a hard-fought 4:6, 6:2, 7:5 victory against the Frenchman Hugo Gaston, the title defender reached the quarterfinals of his Olympic stress test.
The way there was rocky, and that was also due to the controversial deciding point of the first set. Gaston had returned a ball of Zverev's only with great effort near the ground and won the point for the set win shortly thereafter. But on TV images, it was noticeable that the ball had bounced twice on the red clay before Gaston's return - Zverev complained wildly to the umpire.
To give the point away was "a disgrace", the 27-year-old shouted in English: "It's impossible that this ball bounced once." Even Supervisor Hans-Jürgen Ochs came onto the court to calm Zverev down. After some minutes of discussions, it went on - and Zverev, whose knee injury from Wimbledon seemed to hold him back at the beginning, took control of the match with plenty of anger.
After 2 hours and 22 minutes, he converted his first match point with an ace. In the battle for a semifinal spot, the Chinese Zhang Zhizhen awaits him.
Gaston causes trouble for Zverev
Zverev had stormed onto the "sacred grass" in London for his victory over Cameron Norrie and arrived at his home tournament exhausted. He reported after his later exit in the round of 16 against Taylor Fritz of a bone marrow edema and a capsule tear in his knee.
The German number one, who plays with a bandage on his left knee, seems to be dealing with the problems - but not much more. The world number 81. Gaston caused Zverev problems with his lob shots time and time again. Restrictions regarding Olympia remain. "It's important that he doesn't fall again like in Wimbledon," said Zverev's brother Mischa to Sky.
At home in the Hanseatic City (until July 21), Zverev wants to gather self-confidence before the Olympics - without causing further damage to his body.
After Zverev's victory, all quarterfinal pairings in Hamburg are set. The Dane Holger Rune faces Arthur Fils from France on Friday. In addition, the Italians Luciano Darderi and the Argentinians Sebastian Baez meet each other, and Francisco Cerundolo fights against Pedro Martinez from Spain for a place in the semifinals.
Although the controversial point dispute had caused Alexander Zverev significant frustration, he managed to channel his anger into a hard-fought victory against Hugo Gaston in their quarterfinal match. The contentious point, which saw Gaston return a ball with great effort near the ground, leading to a set win, sparked intense complaints from Zverev, who even referred to it as a "disgrace". Despite the initial setback, the German tennis player rallied and overcame the French opponent 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, securing his spot in the semifinals.
