Madrid (AP) – Olympic champion Alexander Zverev has reached the final of the tennis tournament in Madrid.
The defending champion prevailed against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 2 early on Sunday morning and at the same time took revenge for the semifinals in Monte Carlo three weeks ago. Zverev (25) used his first match point at 1:09 a.m. local time after 1:53 hours. In the final, the German number one will face Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday (6:30 p.m. / Sky). The Spanish young star had previously defeated the Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic in 3:35 hours in the first semi-final 6: 7 (5: 7), 7: 5 and 7: 6 (7: 5).
Zverev showed a very solid performance against Tsitsipas. In the first set he used his first break chance to lead 4:3 and got the first round after only 34 minutes. After that, the native of Hamburg slacked off a bit and made a few double mistakes. Tsitsipas uses this to balance sentences. But at the beginning of the third section, Zverev was back. The third in the world rankings managed a quick break and didn’t let the lead be taken away.
Alcaraz had previously underlined his current exceptional form and did not let world number one Djokovic stop him in his triumphal march in his home country of Spain. In the previous round he had only eliminated his great idol Rafael Nadal. This makes him the first professional tennis player to defeat both Nadal and Djokovic in a clay court tournament.
“It gives me a lot of confidence for Sunday’s final,” said the Spaniard. Djokovic paid tribute to the young star after the game. “For someone his age, he plays very mature and fearless, that’s impressive,” said the world number one.