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Germany's Alexander Zverev plays a backhand 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.
World number three 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.
It was Zverev's 24th career title and he drew level with compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber on a record three Munich trophies, the others coming in 2017 and 2018.
American second seed Shelton failed to get a third career title the day after a gruelling three-set semi-final against Francisco Cerundolo.
The Australian Open semi-finalist compiled 21 unforced errors in the final to Zverev's seven in front of a sell-out crowd which included Bayern Munich football star Thomas Müller.
Zverev ended a barren run of not going beyond the quarter-finals in six tournaments since reaching the Australian Open final in January which he lost against world number one Jannik Sinner.
"I believe we don't have to talk about the past weeks. I am unbelievably happy with the title and the level I played at," Zverev told Sky TV.
He admitted to some "tough weeks" which included opening match defeats at the Masters events in Indian Wells and Monte Carlo, but added: "I will now enjoy my birthday and that I won a tournament."
Success comes at the right time in the build-up to the French Open, where Zverev was a finalist last year and where he will make another attempt at winning a maiden grand slam title.
His next event is the Madrid Masters starting on Wednesday, where Zverev lifted the trophy in 2018 and 2021.
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