PARIS (Reuters) – Fourth seed Alexander Zverev kept his bid for an elusive first Grand Slam title alive by reaching a fourth straight semi-final at the French Open with a 6-4 7-6(5) 6-4 victory over 11th-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur on Wednesday.
Zverev will play seventh seed Casper Ruud in the last-four after holder Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal from the other quarter-final with a knee injury, and the German got there after some testing moments midway through the clash.
The former U.S. Open runner-up took control and claimed the see-sawing first set after a crucial break in the seventh game, but was dragged into a dogfight in the next after the duo swapped serves again and went to a tiebreak.
Zverev fought from 4-0 down in the tiebreak and reached set point after a breathless 39-shot rally, doubling his lead in the contest shortly after and soaking up the applause from the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd.
De Minaur gifted his opponent a break and a 4-2 lead with a double fault but battled tenaciously to recover it three games later, only to surrender serve again with Zverev closing out the victory thanks to an unforced error.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Paris; Editing by Toby Davis)
