Alexander Zverev won his 24th ATP title at the BMW Open after beating Ben Shelton in the final.
Zverev sent a message to Ben Shelton after his victory at the ATP 500 tournament in Munich, which was much needed for the German.
This enabled him to climb back up to world number two in the ATP rankings, after Carlos Alcaraz lost the Barcelona Open final to Holger Rune.
Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem has praised Zverev for his performance in Munich, as he now looks to use this momentum throughout the clay court season.
What Sam Querrey is expecting Alexander Zverev to do after his BMW Open win
Zverev beat Shelton in a straight sets final to win his first ATP title since the Paris Masters in October last year.
Prior to the Munich tournament, Zverev had struggled for form in the subsequent months to losing the Australian Open final against Jannik Sinner.
Now that Zverev appears to have found his confidence again, former world number 11 Sam Querrey believes that the three-time major finalist will only push on from this.
Querrey has predicted Zverev to reach at least the semi-finals of two of his next three tournaments at the Madrid Open, Italian Open and Roland Garros.
“He’s like almost back,” Querrey said on the Nothing Major Podcast. “It was a much needed win, he needed that more than anyone on tour. I think it was the quarter-final match against [Tallon] Griekspoor.
“Griekspoor beat him at Indian Wells, I don’t know if you saw the celebration afterwards when he beat him, he did that old school Tsonga celebration where he ran and jumped up with the fist pump. To do it in Munich, there was probably extra pressure on him to win this in Germany, so that was a good sign.
“But I feel like this win in Munich is going to spark his confidence and ignite the missing flame he has had since the Australian Open and I am now expecting him to put together at least in Madrid, Rome and the French Open – two out of the three I am expecting big results from him, semi-finals or better.”
Zverev believes Roland Garros is his best chance of winning a major title, and was the runner-up to the aforementioned Alcaraz last year.
Steve Johnson says what the most important thing was for Alexander Zverev at the BMW Open
Former world number 21 Steve Johnson wanted to elaborate on Querrey’s point about the quarter-final match between Zverev and Tallon Griekspoor.
Griekspoor beat Zverev at Indian Wells last month, and looked on course to do it again when he served for the match in the second set.
However, Zverev was able to break back before going onto beat the Dutchman, as he then won both his semi-final and final matches in straight sets.
Johnson has spoken about the importance of that win for Zverev over Griekspoor, and also pointed out the limitations of Shelton’s game on clay at the moment.
“The most important thing for him this week was Griekspoor served for the match against him at 5-4 in the quarters,” said Johnson. “To get out of a match like that, to have your back against the wall and to come out victorious. Then he started to play his best tennis.
“You could tell in the semis and final that this was now his tournament. He got through that moment of adversity that he needed to get through and any one of the number of the last tournaments that he didn’t capitalise on those opportunities, he did in his hometown of Munich.
“Playing Shelton in the final. Ben is a phenomenal tennis player but it’s still tough as an American, we all know you get to a certain point against these really good clay courters and you just feel like you are a bit in over your head from a movement standpoint and that’s what it looked like in the finals.
“There was just a different weight class. Sacha on the clay against Ben. It’s a big week for Sacha, a huge confidence boost for a surface where I think he has his best chance to win a major. I still think he has a chance on hard but of the next two majors, the French is overwhelmingly his favourite to get the job done.”
Zverev will now turn his attention to the Madrid Open, where has twice lifted the title before.
As the top seed, Zverev will await the winner of the match between Roberto Bautista Agut and Jaume Munar.
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