ATP Tournament in Hamburg, 1st round, Monday, 19.05.2025, 15:30
Home turf under his feet – that should help him finally end his losing streak. Alexander Zverev is seeded number one at Hamburg’s Rothenbaum and wants to give his fans a successful tournament right to the end.
He has reached the final here twice in the past, so an early exit is not part of his game plan. In my Zverev Kovacevic tip, I’ll tell you why I don’t expect any teething problems despite his mediocre results and why I believe the favorite will win easily.
He’s in! Fans had to wait a long time to find out whether Alexander Zverev would even be playing here on the Elbe, as the Hamburg native was not initially on the seed list.
Thanks to an A+ wild card, Zverev will now be able to take part at short notice. The 28-year-old is hoping for a few “relaxed” days at home to help him get back on track.
“I’m really looking forward to coming back to Hamburg. Everyone knows how much this place means to me – Hamburg is my hometown, it’s where I started playing tennis and it’s also where I received the wildcard for my first ATP tournament. I’m especially looking forward to seeing the fans at Rothenbaum, who always support me in a very special way.”
Zverev had actually planned to stay in Rome until last Sunday, but that didn’t work out. He was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Masters in the Eternal City, so once again he failed to achieve a top result.
6-7, 4-6 against Lorenzo Musetti, when he comes up against players who are roughly on the same level, Zverev usually fails. Since losing the final at the Australian Open, he has been knocked out in the quarterfinals at the latest, with one exception.
The exception is the BMW Open in Munich, where Zverev won the title. The home advantage cannot be denied. At Rothenbaum, the local hero won the final in 2023 with a score of 7-5, 6-3 against Laslo Djere, and last year he lost the final to Arthur Fils with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 7-6.
So will he now achieve the final triple? One thing is clear: the German’s serve was not up to par in Rome. In terms of successful first serves or points won on his first serve, he struggled to even reach a score of over 70.
Musetti was able to convert all three break points, while Arthur Fils, Camilo Ugo Carabelli, and Vilius Gaubas also had chances to break. Ahead of his first match against Aleksandar Kovacevic, Zverev is well aware of his height advantage.
At 1.83m, the American is 15 centimeters shorter and plays a one-handed backhand. This is the first time Kovacevic has registered for Hamburg. We don’t really need to look at the odds from our PayPal bookmakers, as they consider the world number 80 to be a clear underdog.
At 1.05 to 10.0 for Zverev, there should be no surprises. Kovacevic had to go through qualifying on the Elbe, of course, and had a few problems in his 7-6, 6-4 win over Max Wiskandt.
The following 6-1, 6-3 win over Vitaly Sachko was much more convincing. The 26-year-old is hungry for a win, as he hasn’t had one since the beginning of April. At the end of January/beginning of February, the American surprised everyone by reaching the final in Montpellier.
He almost won the title there, but after victories over Alexander Bublik and Andrey Rublev, he lost the final in a close match 2-6, 7-6, 6-7 to Felix Auger-Aliassime.
This was followed by triumph at the Challenger in Cap Cana in March, where he beat Daniel Altmaier, among others. Since then, however, he has only managed two wins, losing in the first round of the recent Challenger in Bordeaux to Calvin Hemery.
In that match, Kovacevic stood out with ten double faults, while Zverev had only three in total during his time at the Masters in Rome.
My Zverev Kovacevic tip
Alexander Zverev’s last-minute confirmation for the ATP tournament in Hamburg has delighted tennis fans, who are naturally hoping he will reach the final for the third time in a row on home soil.
Aleksandar Kovacevic has not exactly been a consistent player in recent weeks. I therefore assume that Zverev will not have any problems at home. My tip is therefore:
Zverev will win easily against Kovacevic and there will be no tie-break!
