Alexander Zverev still has his sights set on the second tournament victory in his comeback season. The top-seeded Olympic tennis champion is in the semi-finals of the hard court tournament in Chengdu, China. On Sunday he defeated the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 5:7, 7:5, 6:2 in a hard-fought and exciting match after just under three hours.
For Jan-Lennard Struff, however, the comeback after his painful hip injury is already over. The 33-year-old from Warstein, seeded third, lost his quarter-final against the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka 4:6, 5:7 in Zhuhai, China. In the round of 16, the German number two defeated the Chilean Cristian Garin in the first ATP match since the end of June. The Japanese, seeded number eight, proved to be one size too big on Sunday.
In the fight for a place in his 32nd final on the ATP tour, Zverev, who had already won his home game in Hamburg this year, will face Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria/No. 3) on Monday. “I don’t care who I play against,” said the tenth in the world rankings.
The Hamburg player had a hard time right from the start with Kecmanovic, who was in seventh place, but he was able to immediately make up for a break by the Serb to make it 3-1. However, Zverev weakened again in the decisive phase of the first set.
In the second set, Zverev increased the pressure, but missed three chances to pull away to 4-1. Instead, he let Kecmanovic come back due to a lack of consistency in his game and was only two points away from defeat at 4:5. But Zverev pulled the momentum back to his side, forced the deciding set and now left no doubts.
Zverev returned to the tour in Chengdu after suffering a thigh injury in the quarterfinals of the US Open against Carlos Alcaraz in early September.
2023-09-24 14:12:00
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