New day, new luck for the German number one at the BMW Open by Bitpanda: Alexander Zverev has to play Daniel Altmaier today. The last match between the two was a while ago, when the player from Kempen narrowly prevailed - time for revenge from the world number three's point of view.
Alexander Zverev was quite relieved when he beat Alexandre Muller to reach the round of 16. It was his best match in a long time: "That really put me in a positive mood," said the world number three afterwards and hopes that the week will continue like this. For example against Daniel Altmaier, his opponent today: "He's made good progress," says Zverev, "but I think the match will depend more on me than on him. If I do my job well, I have confidence in myself. In any case, the conditions are just the way he likes them: dry and warm. Incidentally, Zverev has played Daniel Altmaier three times so far, winning twice, and of course the two-time BMW Open winner will be the favourite against the world number 68.
Particularly pleasing from a German perspective: Yannick Hanfmann, successful yesterday against Djokovic's conqueror - Jakub Mensik - from Miami, will play his second round today against Tallon Griekspoor. The Dutchman leads the direct comparison, but the player from Karlsruhe is very familiar with the special conditions in Munich and has the German crowd behind him.
Ben Shelton is also "on fire" again, having coped well with both the change from hard court to clay and the change to altitude. He has never played his opponent, Botic van de Zandschulp, before; the Dutchman has been in the final in Munich twice - that should be exciting.
Shelton fought, he toiled and he turned his opening match at the BMW Open by Bitpanda around. And how! The way Ben Shelton plays and performs on the court clearly shows that this young man wants to win with every fibre of his being. Afterwards, he sits relaxed in the press area and chats about his visit to the Allianz Arena for FC Bayern's game against Dortmund: "My favourite player is Michael Olise and it was great to see him, so why not cheer like him." After his win against Borna Gojo, he imitated Olise's cheer.
The 22-year-old played his way through the college circuit to become one of the best in the world, reached the semi-finals at this year's Australian Open, is now ranked number 15 in the world and is in high demand on social media. No wonder, he is so relaxed and cool. He is coached by his father Bryan, a former world-class player himself and old acquaintance of tournament director Patrik Kühnen. The two used to play doubles together. Ben gets on really well with his father: "We do a pretty good job together and I try to listen to him as much as possible." His dad certainly likes to hear that.
