Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev is on the verge of his second title in his comeback season.
The top seed from Hamburg beat the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov with an energetic performance 6:3, 7:6 (7:2) in the semi-finals of the hard court tournament in Chengdu/China. The unseeded Wimbledon quarter-finalist Roman Safiullin from Russia is now waiting in the final of the 250 tournament on Tuesday (11:00 a.m. CEST/Sky).
Zverev kept Dimitrov in check with a concentrated performance in the fourth duel this year. He had previously defeated the Bulgarian at the French Open, the US Open and the Masters in Cincinnati.
With the seventh success in the eighth match against Dimitrow, Zverev moved into his 32nd final on the ATP tour and is fighting for his 21st title.
The 26-year-old is making his comeback to the tour in Chengdu after suffering a thigh injury in the quarterfinals of the US Open against Carlos Alcaraz in early September.
This year, the tenth in the current world rankings had already triumphed in his hometown of Hamburg and celebrated his first tournament victory after the serious ankle injury in early summer of last year.