Two things that stood out in Alexander Zverev's 2R win over Maximilian Marterer at Hamburg European Open

Fourth seed Alexander Zverev beat compatriot Maximilian Marterer 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of the Hamburg European Open on Wednesday, July 26. The 26-year-old Zverev prevailed with a solid performance as he wrapped up the contest within a couple of hours.

The hometown boy will face Luca van Assche of France in the quarterfinal on Friday. He will start as the favorite in that match as well and the unseeded Frenchman will have a staggering task in front of him.

Zverev remains one of the favorites to win the tournament and is almost certain to reach the last four. On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in his win against Marterer:

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#1 Alexander Zverev’s backhand nullified Maximilian Marterer’s crosscourt forehand

Maximilian Marterer was the second successive southpaw Alexander Zverev faced in the tournament after his win over Alex Molcan in the first round. Once again, his opponent’s crosscourt forehand was directed at his backhand, which is among the most powerful in the world, and Zverev capitalized on that.

As a result, the big German dominated most of the crosscourt exchanges off his backhand from the baseline. He made a fine start to the match by breaking Marterer in the very first game of the match and then went on to build on the lead. He broke Marterer once more in the first set to win it rather convincingly.

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#2 Maximilian Marterer continued to struggle with his serve in the second set

Maximilian Marterer’s serve lacked the venom to seriously trouble Alexander Zverev on the day. Zverev got yet another early break in the second set to lead 4-2 at one stage. However, Marterer then got a break back to reduce the deficit to 3-4 and then held his serve to level the score.

Zverev then broke his younger opponent in the 12th game of the set to finish the match off. He won a very commendable 90% of the points on his first serve, while Marterer only managed to win 68% and 36% of the points on his first and second serves, respectively, in the match. Marterer, however, showed some promise by hitting the angles really well on a few occasions in the second set.

Zverev converted four of the six break point opportunities that came his way, while Marterer was able to break his opponent only once. Overall, it was a commanding performance that saw the World No. 19 through.