Germany’s Alexander Zverev plays a forehand return against USA’s Ben Shelton during their men’s singles final tennis match at the ATP Munich Open tennis tournament. Sven Hoppe/dpa
Alexander Zverev downed Ben Shelton 6-2, 6-4 on his 28th birthday on Sunday as he claimed a first title of the year in front of a German home crowd at the BMW Open in Munich.
Zverev won 33 of his 37 first serve points and did not face a break point in the duel of the two top seeds. He broke Shelton in the first game of both sets and for 5-2 in the first set en route to victory in 1 hour 12 minutes on first match point.
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It was Zverev’s 24th career title and a record-equalling third in Munich, the others coming in 2017 and 2018.
It ended a barren run as Zverev had not gone beyond the quarter-finals in six tournaments since reaching the Australian Open final in January which he lost against world number one Jannik Sinner.
American second seed Shelton failed to get a third career title the day after a gruelling three-set semi-final against Francisco Cerundolo. He compiled 21 unforced errors in the final to Zverev’s seven.
