Alexander Zverev is on the verge of his second title in his comeback season. The top-seeded Olympic champion beat the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow with an energetic performance 6:3, 7:6 (7:2) in the semifinals of the hard court tournament in Chengdu/China on Monday (September 25, 2023).
The unseeded Wimbledon quarter-finalist Roman Safiullin from Russia is now waiting in the final of the 250 tournament on Tuesday (11 a.m. in the live ticker on sportschau.de).
“I’m very happy with this match – it was very high quality, it always is when you play against Grigor”said Zverev, who converted his first match point after 1:49 hours and kept Dimitrow 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.
Comeback after injury at US Open
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. With this success, Zverev took another step towards the ATP Finals in Turin
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.