Second seed Alexander Zverev showed his class in a thrilling last set tie-breaker at the Monte Carlo Country club and defeated Jannik Sinner of Italy 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (5) to reach his second semifinal at Monaco.
The match witnessed both the players collectively producing 10 break points during the three hour gruelling match.
The German managed to fight back twice from a break down in the third set and finally forced his opponent for a battle in a tie-break before the 24-year-old Zverev bagged the victory with a 7-5 win after Sinner’s backhand netted.
“It means a lot, definitely, especially with how this year has been going so far for me. I have lost long matches like that, so I’m happy I won this one,” Zverev said emotionally, who screamed in relief on the winner.
Storming into the quarterfinals without dropping a set, the world No. 3 has the opportunity to close the gap with Serbian Novak Djokovic and Russian Daniil Medvedev on the ATP rankings, as he will move within 235 points of top-ranked Djokovic if he finishes the week with a title in the opening clay-court Masters of the season.
Zverev had already tasted the victory in Rome and Madrid, meaning that Monte Carlo is the only ATP Masters 1000 tournament on clay court that he has never won.
The German’s next challenge will be taking on the defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who will also be coming from a three-set thriller to advance.
Under the floodlights on Court Rainier III, third seed Tsitsipas botched up a 5-2 lead in the second set, before clawing back from 0-4 down in the decider to secure the victory 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-4 after a long two hours and 45 minutes.
“There was a moment in the match where I felt like what I was trying to do out on the court wasn’t really working. I wanted to stay as long as possible on court. I loosened up a little bit and focused on shot after shot … that worked out very well,” said Tsitsipas.
The other semi-final will be between two of the unseeded players – Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Bulgaria’s Gregor Dimitrov.
(Inputs from IANS)