Munich (Germany) (AFP) – World No. 3 Alexander Zverev reignited his clay court campaign with a commanding 6-4, 6-1 victory over France’s Alexandre Muller in the opening round of the ATP tournament in Munich on Monday.
The German fell in his opening match at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, squandering an opportunity to overtake Jannik Sinner for the world No. 1 ranking.
Instead, the loss—coupled with Carlos Alcaraz’s triumph in Sunday’s final—caused Zverev to slip one spot in the rankings and disrupted his buildup for next month’s French Open.
On Monday, Zverev got off to a strong start by breaking Muller in the opening game. Although Muller responded with a break to level at 3-3, Zverev regained control to close out the first set in 47 minutes.
The top seed found his groove in the second set, securing three breaks of serve.
The 27-year-old wrapped up the match in just one hour and 20 minutes.
Since his straight-sets loss to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open final in January, Zverev has competed in six tournaments but hasn’t advanced beyond the quarter-finals in any of them.
“I’m very happy with the match,” Zverev told Sky Germany. “I want to get back to playing my best tennis – and this was a solid step in the right direction.”
Despite winning consecutive Munich titles in 2017 and 2018, Zverev hasn’t progressed beyond the quarter-finals there since.
He will next face either fellow German Daniel Altmaier or Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin in the quarters.
Earlier on Monday, world No. 15 Ben Shelton had a shaky start to his Munich campaign, rallying from a set down to defeat world No. 410 Borna Gojo 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7-3).
The second seed survived three match points and clinched both of his sets in tiebreaks, securing the hard-fought win in two hours and 24 minutes.
Defending champion Jan-Lennard Struff, who defeated American Taylor Fritz in last year’s final, will begin his title defense on Tuesday against Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.
