ATP Tour
Zverev arrives grown and with 80 aces in the Australian semifinals
His rival for a place in the final will be Alcaraz or De Miñaur
January 27, 2026
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Alexander Zverev is No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings.
by this ATEDIDE ATP
The German with the most semifinals in Australian Open history is now called Alexander Zverev.
The No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings monopolized the title this Tuesday by beating the American Learner Tien with sets of 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-6(3). By advancing to his fourth semifinal of the tournament, he leaves behind the records of his compatriots Tommy Haas (3) and Boris Becker (2).
‘Sascha’ is showing in his 40th Grand Slam participation that he still has what it takes to aspire to his first title at this level. There’s a reason the 28-year-old right-hander has eliminated three seeds in the last three rounds, and categorically competing in the second week.
Although he lost a set this Tuesday – and was close to going to the fifth -, Zverev has gotten a high mark in almost all his lines against a player who had just flirted with perfection against Daniil Medvedev. Especially the serve was key for the third seed. And it didn’t even suffer ruptures. In addition, he hit 24 aces to become the tournament leader in this statistic with 80 aces in the fortnight. And he only committed a double fault, in his first match point of the night when he won the final tiebreaker 6/0.
Not to mention that he always maintained his composure when faced with Tien’s intention to react. In fact, his way of responding to the lost set was to win the next one in 28 minutes, without facing break points, connecting 13 winners and committing zero! unforced errors.
Michael Chang’s pupil could do little to put out Zverev’s fire in the three hours and eleven minutes of the match. And the 25th seed played at a very high level. In fact, the 20-year-old left-hander had set point in the twelfth game of the quarter, but a 207 km/h serve from the German prevented Tien from hitting the return.
Minutes later in the tiebreaker, Zverev gained even more momentum with a mini break on the first point. And, from there, he only took sure steps towards his 36th victory in Australia.
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“Learner played incredible from deep. I think I haven’t played with someone who played from behind like that in a long time. I don’t know what Michael Chang was doing with him in the preseason, but he’s playing incredible,” said the German on the court. “Without my 20-plus aces today would have been difficult. So I’m just happy to be back in the semi-finals.”
This result means for Zverev his tenth qualification to the Grand Slam semifinals, establishing himself as the second player from his country with the most appearances in this instance. Only Becker’s 18 semi-finals in this type of tournament surpass him.
His next challenge, against the winner of the duel between Carlos Alcaraz and Alex de Minaur, will be to progress to his fourth Grand Slam final, and the second at Melbourne Park, where he was a finalist a year ago when he lost to Jannik Sinner in the definition.
On Friday he will have his biggest test: he will have his first match of the fortnight against a Top 10.
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