Alexander Zverev "threw up 37 times" before second-round loss in Hamburg

HAMBURG—Originally, Alexander Zverev had traveled to Hamburg to collect "positive emotions." The results of the past few weeks—round of 16 in Madrid, quarterfinal in Rome—did not leave the 28-year-old satisfied, so he decided to attend the event in his hometown just a few days before the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. He wanted to recharge his batteries in a homely environment so that he would be well prepared to start his mission to win his first major title.

Following the withdrawal of Jannik Sinner, Zverev started at the Rothenbaum as the top seed, and the favourite to win the tournament—one he had won two years ago, and finished second in 2024 (to Arthur Fils).

Zverev's hunt for positive emotions began on Monday in Hamburg when he played his first-round match against Aleksandar Kovecevic. He started the tournament with a 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory and was confident afterwards: "I'm very happy. The first one and a half sets in particular were almost perfect. After that, I lost my concentration for a moment, but luckily I won the whole thing in two sets."

He emphasized once again that he was not pursuing any specific training goal in Hamburg—apart from preparing well for Paris.

"I think my tennis has generally been going in the right direction in recent weeks," he said. "I showed good tennis in Rome—and here too. I'm just trying to prepare as good as possible. There are no very specific things at the moment, it's more about the big picture."

But two days later, on Wednesday evening, preparations in Hamburg came to an end after his second match. After a tough battle and at only two points away from victory, Zverev had to accept defeat against Alexandre Muller. After two hours and 42 minutes, the final score was: 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5).

There is a caveat: Zverev was sick.

"For the fact that I threw up 37 times and had a fever of 39.4 degrees all night, that's actually quite okay," admitted Zverev. Only because the Bitpanda Hamburg Open is his home tournament did Zverev take the court. "I think there are two players in the whole world who would have taken to the court today. I'm one of them. And I'm really proud of that."

He also repeated: "I was two points away from winning the match. There's a lot to be said in my favour."

Nevertheless, he also praised his opponent: "I think I played a solid and good match. But he realised at some point that I wasn't feeling well and then went on playing the points for as long as possible. That was clever on his part."

What do the next few days in Paris bring? Zverev does not yet know exactly, but he looked for positives:

Maybe it's actually a good thing that I now have a few days to control the strain a little.

Regardless of the early defeat in Hamburg or his health problems, Zverev's goal for Roland Garros remains unchanged.

"I'll get healthy first and then see. But nothing will change for me for Paris. I still want to show good tennis there and win a lot of matches."