German seventh seed Alexander Zverev yesterday recovered from a slow start to beat former champion Stan Wawrinka 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the Australian Open to reach his first career Grand Slam semi-final.
Zverev was once considered one of the leading Next Gen contenders to break the Grand Slam hegemony of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — who have shared the past 12 majors between them.
However, the German, who beat Federer and Djokovic on his way to the 2018 ATP Finals title, fell off the radar as he failed to get past the quarter-finals at the majors.
Photo: AFP
“It feels awesome. I don’t know what to say,” Zverev said. “I have done well in other tournaments. I have won Masters and I have won the World Tour finals, but I never could break that barrier in the Grand Slams. You cannot imagine what this means to me and I hope this will be the first of many.”
Zverev came to the year’s first Grand Slam lacking confidence after losing all three of his singles matches at the inaugural ATP Cup.
He totaled 31 double-faults during the three defeats, but his serve has been immaculate in the year’s first Grand Slam.
Yesterday, Zverev hit 13 aces and while his opponent struggled with his serves, the German got 80 percent of his first serves in.
“Thanks for reminding me. I thought I had forgotten about it,” Zverev said, when asked about what he did to improve his serve from the ATP Cup. “I worked very hard. I worked a lot on it. This is a Grand Slam. This is where you are supposed to play your best tennis and I am doing that.”
Swiss Wawrinka, who won the first of his three Grand Slams at Melbourne Park in 2014, broke Zverev twice early to breeze through the opening set, but the 22-year-old German came roaring back.
The opening set against Wawrinka was the first that Zverev lost in this year’s Australian Open, but he won the next three sets by breaking his 34-year-old opponent’s serve five times.
“I was getting ready to talk to the press about why I lost in straight sets to be honest,” Zverev said jokingly, adding that he needed time to adjust to the conditions as he had previously played at night. “Then I kind of turned it around and my energy picked up a little bit.”
Zverev converted his first match point when Wawrinka sent a forehand long. He next faces Austria’s Dominic Thiem for a place in Sunday’s final.
Yesterday, Thiem ended six years of Grand Slam frustration against Rafael Nadal with a seismic 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (8/6) upset that booked his maiden Australian Open semi-final and rocked the old guard of men’s tennis.
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