Zverev battles past impressive Gaston to reach quarter-finals of Hamburg Open

Alexander Zverev, the top seed, edged out Frenchman Hugo Gaston 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to move into the last eight of the Hamburg Open at the Rothenbaum Tennis Center.

In an entertaining last-16 tussle, Gaston gave a great account of himself, pushing the German close in front of a partisan home crowd.

The pair exchanged breaks at the start of the opening set, before Gaston struck again in the tenth and final game to clinch a one-set lead.

That seemed to spark Zverev to life, who lifted his game considerably to break twice without reply en route to a comfortable second-set win.

The decider was where the contest really caught fire, with both players breaking each other twice in a topsy-turvy third stanza before the German broke in the eleventh game of the set to nudge 6-5 ahead. From there, he served out a hard-fought win against a thoroughly impressive opponent in the left-handed Hugo Gaston.

Zverev will face another tough challenge when he takes on eighth-seeded Zhizhen Zhang in the quarter-finals.

Ahead of his victory, the German won against Dutch qualifier Jesper De Jong (6-2, 6-2).

Gaston, ranked No 81, edged out Argentinian Facundo Diaz Acosta (7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4) in the previous round of the Hamburg tournament.

Hamburg ATP 500, other second-round results (Rothenbaum Tennis Center, clay, EUR 1.891.995, most recent results first):

• Holger Rune (2) beat Marco Trungelliti (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Flavio Cobolli: 6-1, 7-6 (5)
• Arthur Fils (5) beat Laslo Djere: 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Sebastian Baez (3) beat Dusan Lajovic: 4-6, 7-5, 6-2
• Francisco Cerundolo (4) beat Maximilian Marterer (WC): 6-0, 6-2
• Pedro Martinez beat Ugo Blanchet (Q): 6-4, 0-6, 7-5
• Luciano Darderi (7) beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-3, 2-6, 6-3