Alexander Zverev cruised into the second round of the Hamburg Open with a comfortable straight-sets victory over Jesper de Jong. (More Tennis News)
The top seed took one step closer to defending his title with a 6-2 6-2 victory on Wednesday.
De Jong took the opening game, but Zverev dominated after that, winning the next five in a row, before holding off the Dutchman's late fightback to take the first set.
The second was a carbon copy of the first, as De Jong was broken twice and given no way back in as Zverev closed out the match to set up a meeting with Hugo Gaston in the next round.
Data Debrief: Defending champion starts strong
After clinching the title on home soil last year, Zverev was always going to come out fighting in his defence.
He hit 29 winners and twice went on five-game winning runs to take the match away from De Jong before he could get any real foothold.
