By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday May 15, 2024
Former Rome champion Alexander Zverev battled past Taylor Fritz to reach the final four at the Foro Italico.
Photo Source: Getty
The men’s field is wide open in Rome, just as it will likely be in Roland-Garros. Alexander Zverev, the last remaining former champion and top five player in this year’s draw at the Foro Italico, is hoping to take advantage.
The 27-year-old did just that on Wednesday night as he battled through an early injury issue and scraped past Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-3 to set a semifinal with upstart Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tabilo took out China’s Zhang Zhizhen to reach his first Masters semifinal.
With his win, 2017 champion Zverev reaches his ninth Masters 1000 semifinal on clay and moves into a tie for fourth on the all-time list with David Ferrer. Only Rafael Nadal (37), Novak Djokovic (28) and Roger Federer (19) have reached more.
Zverev served magnificently across the 90-minute encounter, dropping just 12 points on serve and never facing a break point as he improved to 5-3 against the 11th-seeded American in their first clay-court meeting.
Zverev’s forehand was also a menace. The No.3 seed pumped 20 winners past Fritz, many of them off that wing.
“That’s the shot I either win or lose matches with. That’s how it’s been my entire career,” Zverev said after the win, in his on-court interview. “When I’m hitting that shot well, that’s when I win. When I’m not hitting it too well, that’s when I lose."
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the 6’6” force. Zverev took a scary tumble on the clay in the third game of the match, and appeared to have some difficulty with his wrist in the aftermatch. Following a lengthy meeting with on-court medical staff, in which wounds were treated on both hands and caked clay was cleared from his body, Zverev returned no worse for the wear.
"I still have a little bit of pain, so once the adrenaline settles I’m going to check out tomorrow what it is. But definitely happy with the win.”