Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev completed the cast in the men’s semifinals today. The former caused a big surprise when he was able to knock out the second player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz, in four sets. The German thus advanced to the seventh Grand Slam semifinal in his career.
Back in the semi-finals after four years
Alexander Zverev has his hands full at this year’s Australian Open. So far, he has played only one three-set match, in the third round with Alex Michelsen. He initially defeated Koepfer in four sets. Subsequently, he needed five sets against Lukáš Klein and also against Cameron Norrie in the round of 16.
He didn’t have it easy in today’s match either, even though the score indicated a smooth course. He faced Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals. Thanks to the great show at the service German he quickly took a 6-1, 6-3 and 5-2 lead. At that moment, the Spanish player began to breathe for a turn. He tied the score of the third set and even won this set in a tiebreak.
The fourth set was even until the score was 4-4. Subsequently, Carlos lost his serve in the ninth game. Alexander Zverev then ended the match on his serve. He won in sets 6-1, 6-3, 6-7 and 6-4. He advanced to his 7th Grand Slam semi-final and second at the Australian Open. In 2020, he was eliminated by Dominic Thiem in the fight for the final.
For the third time in the last four years in the semi-finals
This time he will face Daniil Medvedev. The Russian player reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the third time in the last four years. In the previous two matches at this stage, he always matured on Stefanos Tsitispas. He never won the final. He was first beaten by Novak Djokovic and two years ago by Rafael Nadal.
In today’s match, his opponent was Hubert Hurkacz, with whom he had a negative match record. Despite the early lead, he won the first set with a break only in a tiebreak. After a lackluster performance in the second set, the Pole leveled the match. Everything indicated that the match would end in four sets, but Medvedev could not keep the 3-1 lead and the fifth set had to be decided. Daniil became the winner after sets 7-6, 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Like Zverev, he played only one three-set match at this year’s Australian Open, and that too in the 3rd round, where he easily defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime. In the 2nd round, he turned the match against Ruusuvuori from 0-2 and eliminated Borges in four sets in the round of 16.
He will face Zverev for the nineteenth time in his career. In the head-to-head record, Medvedev leads with a ratio of 11-7. They played a total of six games against each other last year. At the same time, Zverev was happy with the win only once.
