Alexander Zverev returned to the tennis courts in Hamburg, but he wasn't sure whether he would play when he woke up in the morning prior to his first match.
The German is having an amazing season, with the only negative aspects being some injury concerns. He is up to 41 wins already, and that's on pace to become his winningest season since 2018, when he won 62 matches.
He's on a pace to probably shatter that season, but it will largely depend on how many matches he plays. That's a very important distinction because the number of matches played is slowly catching up with him.
We've seen him deal with some injury concerns at Roland Garros, but he was able to brush them aside and make the final, where he was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz in five sets. A switch to grass didn't go that smoothly, but he found a good level in London before he injured his knee.
It happened against Cameron Norrie, and it proved to be quite problematic. It caused him pain and limited his movement, which contributed to the loss against Taylor Fritz. It didn't really look good.
He had to have fluids pulled out of his knee, and there were a lot of question marks about whether he would make it even to the Olympics, let alone the Hamburg Open.
Surprisingly, he made it to the ATP 500 tournament in his home town, and he started really well, winning his first match with ease, so it seemed like everything was fine.
It's not quite like that because Zverev confirmed after the match, as per SpilXperten, that he didn't feel that great in the morning when he woke up, but after some treatment, he felt better and decided to give it a go.
"Actually, I didn't know this morning if I would play or not. During the warm-up, it wasn't good, but I got some treatment for my knee, and after that, it felt much better, and then I decided to play."
"On the court, I haven't felt as comfortable since the injury, and I felt much better than I had expected. Of course, I am extremely happy about that."
Zverev plans to continue playing and see how the injury develops. He has a good idea of how his body is responding now, and he's fine with it. In another match, things could feel very different, but he'll try to push through.
"I would guess that I will continue to play now. Now I know how my body reacts to playing. Of course, it wasn't the most intense match. It wasn't the hardest match, but it was still a full match, and it was still a question mark for me. I don't want to give up during a match. I don't want to retire during a match. I have only done it once in my life."
Unfortunately, injuries are part of every athlete's career. A few years ago, Zverev had a bad ankle injury on clay. He still prefers that surface to grass because bad injuries don't happen as often on clay as they do on grass. Luckily for him, the grass season is already over.
"Grass is definitely the most dangerous surface. These things can happen in any match on grass, and it happened to me against Norrie. You slip, and your body gets into a weird position, which normally doesn't happen on clay."
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