Marcos celebrated his 31st birthday on Friday at the Gerry Weber Open, despite falling to Alexander Zverev 7-6(9), 6-3.
The quarter-final defeat to the German teen marked the end of a stellar week for Marcos on the grass of Halle. He opened with a Top 10 upset of fourth seed Tomas Berdych, which was followed by a straight-sets defeat of home hope Dustin Brown.
On Friday, he struck more winners (19) than unforced errors (18) during the 91-minute battle, but was unable to earn a break chance. Marcos had five set points in the first set tiebreak, but Zverev took control in seeing off all five and eventually clinching the set at 11-9. It was just Marcos’ second tiebreak lost this year (8-2 record). In the second set, 38th-ranked Zverev captured his lone break of the match for 3-1, en route to victory.
Marcos, who was appearing in his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year, will next travel to Nottingham for the Aegon Open Nottingham. He was a semi-finalist there last year and is seeded ninth next week. Having received a first round bye, Marcos opens against either Denis Kudla or Evgeny Donskoy. Other seeds in his section include No. 2 Pablo Cuevas and No. 5 Sam Querrey.