Still in search of his first Grand Slam title, Germany’s Alexander Zverev nearly missed out on a trip to the semifinals at the Australian Open.
However, even with some shaky serving in his first two games, the second-seeded Zverev survived 12th-seeded American Tommy Paul 7-6 (1), 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-1 in the quarterfinals in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Zverev will next play the winner of Tuesday’s other quarterfinal match between rivals Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the No. 7 seed, and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, the No. 3 seed.
Zverev, who will play in his third Aussie Open semi, lost serve at 5-5 in the first set and sat a game from falling behind 1-0. But he fought back to survive a set point and broke the 27-year-old Paul before rolling in the tiebreaker.
Zverev, 27, slipped up even earlier in the second set, dropping his first service game and ultimately falling behind 3-0. He again fought back, though, breaking Paul to pull within 5-4 before holding serve from there — despite facing another set point — and blanking his opponent in the tiebreaker.
“To be honest, I should have been down two sets to love,” Zverev said in his on-court interview following the match. “He played better than me. I was not playing great and I thought he was.
“I somehow won the first set, somehow won the second set, and I’m up two sets to love all of a sudden and I need only one more set.”
Paul did dominate the third set to gain some hope for a comeback, but that quickly went away, as Zverev cruised in the fourth set to close out the match.
“The fourth set was definitely the best that I’ve played and I’m obviously extremely happy to be back in the semifinals now,” Zverev said.
–Field Level Media
