Alexander Zverev reached the semi-finals in a nerve-wracking game at the tennis tournament in Halle/Westphalia and can continue to hope for the first lawn title of his career. The French Open winner kept his cool against Belgian qualifier Raphael Collignon and won 7:6 (12:10), 7:6 (7:2). In temperatures beyond 30 degrees Celsius, Zverev scored his second match point after two hours.
On Saturday, the 29-year-old faces the biggest challenge so far in his preparation for Wimbledon (from June 29th). In the fight for a place in the final of the Terra Wortmann Open, which Zverev had already reached in 2016 and 2017, he will face US professional Taylor Fritz, against whom he has never looked particularly good recently. Zverev has been waiting for a win for two years, and he lost six times in a row.
Fritz even needed 2:45 hours in the East Westphalian midday heat to reach the semi-finals on Friday. In another tiebreak thriller without a single break, he defeated his compatriot Ben Shelton 6:7 (5:7), 7:6 (10:8), 7:6 (7:3). He fended off a match point, but ultimately deservedly advanced thanks to 24 aces.
Zverev also had to go into the tiebreak first after missing two break points in the first game of the game. There he fended off three set points against the strong-serving outsider and kept his nerve. Zverev also had to show patience in the second set; again he and Collignon played through all service games, but the Hamburger showed his class in the tiebreak.