Alexander Zverev put a big exclamation mark against Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Masters in Paris – and defeated his feared opponent Daniil Medvedev after fending off two match points.
After an outstanding fighting performance, the Hamburg player moved into the semi-finals with 2:6, 6:3 and 7:6 (7:5) and will meet Jannik Sinner, whom he almost defeated in Vienna. Zverev showed against Medvedev that he can also cope with setbacks. Nothing went right for him in the first set, but then he played powerfully from the baseline and forced the Russian to make mistakes.
Zverev said honestly afterwards: “In the first round I played stupidly at times tactically, but then I changed a few things and found a good way. That was the key. I had a fantastic match against Jannik recently, which will definitely be very interesting now.”
Net roller and smash ball hit
There were two balls against Medvedev that would have been used as symbols in the event of a defeat. At 4:4 in the third set, he had actually dominated the rally, but Medvedev saved himself with a net roller to the outside edge of the line – then Zverev sank to the ground in frustration.
Then in the decisive tiebreak he hammered a slight smash that would have given him a 5-2 lead – shortly afterwards it was 5-5. But the Davis Cup player put up with both scenes, picked himself up again and was finally able to celebrate again against a great opponent.
Sinner doesn’t give Shelton a chance
The Italian Sinner gave fifth-seeded American Ben Shelton no chance at 6:3, 6:3 and celebrated his 24th victory on an indoor hard court in a row. If Sinner wins the 1000m tournament on the Seine, he will replace the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in the world rankings on Monday.
The other semi-final will be contested by Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime and Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan. Both are still fighting for the last available ticket for the ATP Finals of the eight best professionals of the tennis year in Turin (November 9th to 16th), for which Sinner and Zverev have long since qualified.