MWith a dominant performance, Alexander Zverev reached the quarter-finals at the French Open for the fifth time and can increasingly hope for a big coup. The 26-year-old tennis Olympic champion defeated the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16 in 2:17 hours 6:1, 6:4, 6:3. “It’s incredible for me to be back in the quarter-finals and I’m extremely happy,” he said after the game.
Zverev only had problems at times in the second set, but fought back after losing his own serve. For the third time in a row, the Hamburg player played under floodlights in the largest stadium, the Stade Roland Garros – and was able to celebrate for the third time. This means that Zverev is in the top eight at the clay court classic in Paris for the third year in a row.
Title contenders are missing
Just a year after his serious ankle injury in the semifinals against Rafael Nadal in the same place, Zverev now has a great chance of the second Grand Slam final of his career on the Philippe-Chatrier court. Zverev is also the favorite in the next duel with the winner of the game between Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Yoshihito Nishioka from Japan.
After the end of the second in the world rankings Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner, several title contenders are missing in the lower half of the tableau. In a possible semi-final, Zverev could meet last year’s Norwegian finalist Casper Ruud or youngster Holger Rune from Denmark.
Zverev started focused, Dimitrow revealed blatant concentration problems right at the beginning. The Bulgarian made three double mistakes in his first two service games. Zverev used the blunders ice cold and made the second break to 3-0 perfect with a strong forehand along the line.
As the game progressed, the former second in the world rankings played with concentration and scored several points with finely placed stop balls. Since the serve, in contrast to the third round victory over the American Frances Tiafoe, initially came safely, Zverev was happy to win the first set after just 30 minutes with a clenched fist without any great emotions.
ranks filled up
A brass band played fanfares from the stands – Dimitrov slowly woke up, stabilized, Zverev made more and more unnecessary mistakes. First, the Hamburg player fended off the opponent’s first two breakballs when the score was 1:1. But the Bulgarian used number three to make it 2: 3 from Zverev’s point of view.
The ranks of the Court Philippe-Chatrier filled up visibly, the audience initially hit the sides of Dimitrov, who was behind. Zverev was not deterred by the “Grigor, Grigor” calls and took his opponent’s serve to zero. The German scored a total of 14 points in a row. Zverev missed four set balls – on the fourth a backhand from Dimitrov sailed into the net – 6: 4.
In the first two service games of the third round, Zverev fended off a total of seven breakballs. Even a gust of wind that kicked up a lot of sand didn’t faze him. Dimitrov was emotionally attacked and had to accept the break immediately. After a 3-0 lead, Zverev had to accept the 3-3 again – and still brought the victory home safely.
