Zverev into Halle quarters where Shelton and Fritz also meet again

French Open champion Alexander Zverev cruised into the quarter-finals of the Halle grass court tournament on Thursday with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) victory over fellow German Yannick Hanfmann.

Zverev hit nine aces and broke Hanfmann once in the first set while not facing a break point en route to victory in 1 hour 21 minutes on first match point.

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“I thought it was a very good-level grass-court match,” Zverev said on court.

“Both of us serving extremely well. I used the chances that I had… I didn’t have many, but the ones I did have, I used them well. I had two break points. I used one of them and then another tie-break. Sometimes matches are like that on a grass court.”

Zverev played better than in his first round match where he had needed three sets to see off Czech player Vit Kopriva.

Halle is Zverev’s first grass court event of the year as he gears up for the June 29 start of Wimbledon where he has never gone beyond the fourth round. He has never won in Halle in nine previous attempts, reaching the final twice.

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Zverev is coming off his maiden grand slam title won on June 7 in Paris.

Also through are Americans Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz who will face each other in the last eight a few days after contesting the Stuttgart final which Shelton won in three sets.

Fritz defeated Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 6-4 while Shelton had to fight hard to see off Ethan Quinn 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

“It’s a different court, but similar tactic,” Shelton was quoted as saying by the ATP website, looking ahead at Friday.

“He’s going to be coming after me hard, as he always does. Same with me coming after him. I’m excited to match up with him again. We have a nice rivalry going: a lot of really tight matches.”

German tennis player Alexander Zverev in action against his compatriot Yannick Hanfmann during their men’s singles round of 16 match of the Halle Open tennis tournament. Friso Gentsch/dpa

German tennis player Yannick Hanfmann in action against his compatriot Alexander Zverev during their men’s singles round of 16 match of the Halle Open tennis tournament. Friso Gentsch/dpa