Alexander Zverev smiled happily towards his box, hit a ball into the Chinese night air and was congratulated by his favorite opponent at the net. The Olympic tennis champion is on the verge of his second title in his comeback season. In the semi-finals of the hard court tournament in Chengdu, the top seed from Hamburg beat the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow 6:3, 7:6 (7:2) after a lot of hard work.
“I’m very happy with this match – it was very high-class, it always is when you play against Grigor,” said Zverev, who converted his first match point after 1:49 hours and Dimitrov with a concentrated performance in the fourth duel had kept in check this year.
“It will not be easy”
The unseeded Roman Safiullin is now waiting in the final of the 250cc tournament on Tuesday (11 a.m. CEST/Sky). Zverev won his only duel with the Russian so far in three sets in Paris in 2021. “He is someone I know very well and who is currently playing great tennis. It won’t be easy,” said Zverev.
Zverev had already defeated Dimitrow in 2023 at the French Open, the US Open and the Masters in Cincinnati. The 26-year-old, who diligently collected more points through his success in the fight to take part in the ATP finals in Turin in November, will contest his 32nd final on the ATP tour on Tuesday and is fighting for his 21st title.
Unlike in the quarterfinals against the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, when he had given up the first set, Zverev started the game highly concentrated. He took the serve straight away from his competitor, who was acting much less cleanly. Zverev continued to move well afterwards, dominated a large part of the rallies and did not allow Dimitrow to sniff a return to the set.
In the second round, the spectators in the sparsely occupied Chengdu tennis stadium saw a much closer match. Zverev repeatedly produced slight forehand errors, but kept his calm and prevented Dimitrow, who was now playing strongly, from breaking with stable, good serves. He found his way back to his game in time for the tie break and marched on to win the match.
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Zverev 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. This year, the tenth in the current world rankings had already triumphed in his hometown of Hamburg and achieved his first tournament victory after the serious ankle injury in early summer of last year.
