Alexander Zverev overcame a sluggish start to go past Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinal of the 2020 Australian Open. He will now play the winner of the Rafael Nadal-Dominic Thiem match for a place in the final.
In doing so, Zverev also entered his first ever Grand Slam semifinal and this might just end up being his breakthrough performance in a major that propels him to never-seen-before heights.
Zverev lost his serve early in the match and then went two breaks down to fall 5-0 behind. He won a game but Wawrinka eased past him in the first set. It turned out to be a much better performance in the second set from Zverev though as he broke Wawrinka in the eighth game to go on to serve out the set.
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There were early breaks in the third set for both players, before Zverev edged past with another break of service in the fifth game. Wawrinka faced set-points on his own serve and while he saved those, Zverev served it out to go two sets to one up.
With Zverev on a high and Wawrinka struggling, the German then gave the Swiss player a taste of his own medicine as he went 4-0 up in the fourth set. Wawrinka added a couple of games of his own but in the end, proved to be no match to his opponent.
Speaking at the end of the match, the German said:
“After that first set, I was getting ready to talk to the press about why I lost in straight sets. I turned it around and my energy picked up a bit. I wasn’t used to his ball… I needed a set to get used it. Thank God it worked out.”
He also confirmed he felt elated to make it this far especially given he had been able to do well in other tournaments but having struggled at Grand Slams.
Zverev added:
“You can’t imagine what this means to me and I hope it will be the first of many.”
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It has been a weird sort of a year for Zverev so far, after the German started off the season with three successive defeats in the ATP Cup. Despite starting out as the seventh-ranked played in the world, not too many would have given him a lot of chance to make it to the final four.
Instead, he hasn’t just made it to the semifinal but before that opening set defeat to Wawrinka in today’s match, Zverev hadn’t dropped a single set in the tournament. In what was expected to be a very stiff match against an in-form Andrey Rublev, Zverev came away a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 winner in the fourth round and this win against Wawrinka made it 3-0 on head to head against the Swiss.
The big question now is if he has the wherewithal to go all the way in the tournament.
On Thursday, the women’s singles semifinals will see Garbine Muguruza take on Simona Halep after both registered straight-set wins over their opponents. The other semifinal will see Ash Barty play Sofia Kenin for a place in the final.
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