ATP Tour

Zverev reaches Halle QFs, Shelton & Fritz set quick rematch

Alexander Zverev maintained his smooth transition onto the grass on Thursday at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, where he returned to the quarter-finals.

The No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, still fresh from winning his maiden major title at Roland Garros, produced a steady display to overcome Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 7-6(4) at the ATP 500 event. Zverev dropped just three of 44 points behind his first delivery and did not face a break point, according to Infosys ATP Stats, during his 81-minute win.

“I thought it was a very good-level grass-court match,” Zverev said in his on-court interview. “Both of us serving extremely well. I used the chances that I had… I didn’t have many, but the ones I did have, I used them well. I had two break points. I used one of them and then another tie-break. Sometimes matches are like that on a grass court.”

Zverev is this week aiming to win his first title in Halle, having advanced to consecutive finals in 2016-17. The top-seeded German next faces qualifier Raphael Collignon, who rallied past fellow qualifier Mattia Bellucci 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Collignon, who is into the third — and biggest — ATP Tour quarter-final of his career, is up eight spots to No. 43 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. The Belgian is set to make his debut inside the Top 50 on Monday.

Earlier, Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz set a rematch just four days after their championship-match showdown in Stuttgart, which the former won in three sets to claim his third title of the season.

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Fritz began Thursday’s action in Halle with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Fabian Marozsan, in which the American won 94 per cent (30/32) of points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Third seed Shelton then followed suit on heristo-arena, though with a more hard-fought 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over countryman Ethan Quinn.

Quinn reeled off four straight games from 5-5 in the second set to spark hopes of a comeback, but Shelton responded in style to extend his winning streak to six matches and reach his seventh quarter-final of the season. The 23-year-old Shelton leads his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Fritz 3-1, having also saved three championship points to win the ATP 500 title in Dallas in February.

“It’s a different court, but similar tactic,” Shelton said, previewing his quarter-final against Fritz. “He’s going to be coming after me hard, as he always does. Same with me coming after him. I’m excited to match up with him again. We have a nice rivalry going: a lot of really tight matches.”