ATP Tour

Zverev digs in to oust Kopriva in Halle, equals Nadal's ATP 500 record win tally

Alexander Zverev did not have a completely smooth transition to grass on Tuesday at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, but the Roland Garros champion nonetheless pulled clear for an opening victory against Vit Kopriva.

Zverev, the top seed at the ATP 500 in north-west Germany, prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 inside heristo-arena. With his two-hour, 10-minute victory, the 29-year-old tied Rafael Nadal for the most ATP 500 match wins (121) since the series was created in 2009.

“Of course, I’m very pleased and happy to play my first match as a Grand Slam champion in Germany, but I don’t think that affected me too much,” Zverev said. “It was really the change of surface, and my opponent was really good today. I thought he played a fantastic match, and he was hitting his groundstrokes incredibly well, serving unbelievably well.

“To be honest I’m very pleased with the win because I think it was a difficult match, a difficult opponent, and for the first grass-court match, it was not too bad.”

Playing his first grass-court match of 2026 just nine days after he outlasted Flavio Cobolli in five sets to earn his first major title on the clay of Roland Garros, Zverev produced a top-class serving performance to push past the World No. 64 Kopriva. The German won 81 per cent (44/54) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats, although the one service game he dropped in the match came at a crucial moment, when Kopriva broke in the 10th game of the second set to force a decider.

After an even start to that third set, Zverev accelerated to a second-round spot by reeling off four consecutive games from 2-2. The No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, who was a finalist in Halle in 2016 and 2017 and has reached the semi-finals in each of the past three years, will take on his countryman Yannick Hanfmann for a quarter-final spot.

Hanfmann earlier notched an upset 6-2, 6-2 triumph against Joao Fonseca to claim his 100th tour-level victory. The 34-year-old is the 25th German man to hit that tally in the Open Era, and is only the third active German man to do so after Zverev (556 wins) and Jan-Lennard Struff (243).

The Halle titlist in 2023 and 2025, Alexander Bublik’s latest title defence on the German grass did not last long. Italian Mattia Bellucci stunned the Kazakhstani third seed 7-6(6), 6-1, becoming just the second man in event history to upset a reigning champion in the opening round. Bellucci, who produced one of the shots of the week so far to clinch an intriguing first set against Bublik, will next play his fellow qualifier Raphael Collignon, a 6-4, 6-2 winner against Alexei Popyrin.

In other first-round action, Hubert Hurkacz made a classy start at an event where he lifted the trophy in 2022. The Pole downed eighth seed Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-2, and will next play home wild card Daniel Altmaier. Daniil Medvedev, who is a two-time finalist in Halle, eased to a 6-3, 6-4 win in his first Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with Tomas Martin Etcheverry. Fourth seed Medvedev will play Terence Atmane next.

Ethan Quinn, Sho Shimabukuro and Fabian Marozsan were the other match winners on Tuesday in Halle. Quinn shook off a slow start to overcome Karen Khachanov 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 and advance to a second-round meeting with third seed Ben Shelton or Lorenzo Sonego.

Meanwhile Shimabukuro earned his first win as a Top-100 player by downing Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. The Japanese will next play Frances Tiafoe, while Marozsan defeated Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to face fifth seed Taylor Fritz or Zizou Bergs.