HAMBURG, July 18, 2019
Alexander Zverev is back in Hamburg! The German No. 1 will return to the Rothenbaum tournament for the first time in three years and is already fired up for playing in front of his home crowd at the Hamburg European Open, which is kicking off on Saturday.
“I was incredibly happy to come back to Hamburg, just to be back home and sleep again in my child’s bed,” Zverev said during a press conference on Thursday at the “Hamburger Ding” by Home United.
“After Wimbledon I took a little vacation and went to Saint Tropez with friends. Now I have been back on clay, practicing for the last 10 days and it feels good.” Late Wednesday evening, the 22-year-old travelled from his residence at Monte Carlo to his native town in northern Germany.
“I wanted to be at home this year, playing in Hamburg again. I am looking forward to the atmosphere, as the spectators will be behind me.”
Willkommen in #Hamburg, Alexander #Zverev!
____________________#HamburgOpen #HamburgEuropeanOpen #HHOpen #Hamburg2019 #Tennis #Rothenbaum @DTB_Tennis @HH_Active_City @hamburg_de pic.twitter.com/yZuvy7apRi— Hamburg European Open (@hamburgopen) July 18, 2019
Zverev hopes for an end of his legal dispute with former agent Patricio Apey in order to fully focus on his on-court action again.
“Hopefully this issue won’t be an issue any more soon,” Zverev said. “It will become clearer over the next days. Everything will be slowly cleared up so that I can completely concentrate on tennis again.”
The World No. 5 will be Hamburg without his coach Ivan Lendl, adding that the eight-time Grand Slam champion’s main current issues were “golf and his little dog”. Zverev mentioned that he has talked with Lendl and asked him to concentrate more on his job.
“Sometimes we go on the practice court. The training is over two hours. And for half an hour he stands with his back to me and tells me about his round of golf,” Zverev said but added that the partnership will continue.
The Hamburg European Open welcomes 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams to the summer clay-court event as one of the 13 ATP Tour 500 stops. Zverev will be among three top-10 players alongside Roland Garros finalist Dominic Thiem of Austria and Italy’s Fabio Fognini.
