Cincinnati’s ball staff had every reason to be tired this week, and Alexander Zverev made sure to acknowledge their efforts. The 2021 champion treated the tournament’s hardworking ball kids to a pizza party, complete with 24 pizzas, after qualifying finally wrapped up late into the night, with the tournament sharing photos of dozens of grinning crew members posed around stacks of Domino’s boxes. 

“The best kind of surprise. After a late night qualifying finish, our 2021 champion Alexander Zverev treated our hardworking ball crew to a well-deserved pizza party. A big thanks to Alex Zverev,” the tournament wrote.

There was persistent rain all over Ohio, and that led to the completion of just 12 of 48 first-round qualifying matches by Tuesday. Wednesday’s session was entirely canceled for fans, with 33 matches remaining before the main draw kicks off on Thursday. Instead of pushing the qualifying the same day as round one of the main draw, the organizers decided to move it to the end of the day when conditions were right, double-booking a few players to play twice in the same day and continuing to keep the ball kids at the venue till the end of the day, exactly the kind of unseen effort Zverev’s gesture was aimed at recognizing. 

It is not the first time Zverev has gone out of his way to include ball kids in his own moments on court, either. After winning his maiden Roland Garros title this year with a five-set victory over Flavio Cobolli, Zverev’s first instinct once the celebrations began was to pull the ball kids into the moment, posing for a selfie with them while still holding the trophy. It was a small gesture, but it builds a pattern: the German has a soft spot for the ball crew who work relentlessly on the court, not for money but out of pure passion for being involved at the highest level of the sport.

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‘Sascha’ opened his campaign at Cincinnati as the top seed in the draw, with Jannik Sinner missing the tournament due to injury. He received a first-round bye and faced Cameron Norrie in the second round. The Brit earned his spot by battling past Dino Prizmic in three sets, after being a set down. 

It sat up a stern early test for Zverev, who is looking to bounce back quickly after an early exit in Montreal the previous week, where he was eliminated in his opening match by Tallon Griekspoor.

Zverev’s Workload This Season Is Unmatched

Alexander Zverev knows the importance of a small, thoughtful move after a long day like no other player on tour, right now. He has spent more time on court than any other on the ATP tour this season, having played 56 matches, accumulating 119 hours. The second closest is Frances Tiafoe with 97 hours, followed by Sinner’s 91 hours.

Zverev’s matches have also averaged longer than almost everyone else’s, clocking at around two hours per match. The number reflects how physically demanding his battles this year have been, including a Roland Garros title and a maiden Wimbledon final. 

Since his breakthrough victory in 2021, Cincinnati has been a happy hunting ground for Zverev. He didn’t compete in the 2022 tournament after an excruciating ankle injury at Roland Garros that year; however, he has made it to the quarter-finals in each of his last three appearances in the French Open. In 2023, he lost to eventual champion Casper Ruud in semis before pushing Carlos Alcaraz to five sets in 2024 and falling to Djokovic in the quarter-finals in 2025 of the same tournament.

Since the title run in 2021, he stands at 14-3 at the event, a dramatic shift from a slugging performance that saw him 0-6 in Cincinnati, where he once admitted to hating the tournament most. Reflecting on that shift last year, Zverev put it plainly. 

“It was probably the tournament that I hated most. Now it’s a tournament that I really love. I found my rhythm and I found my conditions here.” His evident comfort at the Lindner Family Tennis Center makes him one of the clearer favorites to go all the way once again.