ATP Rome: Semifinal! Alexander Zverev remains on course to defend his title

Alexander Zverev still has the chance to defend his title at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome. Germany’s number one defeated David Goffin and reached the semi-finals.

The start of the fight for the semi-final could not have been better for Alexander Zverev. After a commanding service play the number two of the tournament approached its opponent and used its already fifth Breakball to the 2:1 guidance.

As in the games before, Zverev served with a lot of self-confidence and secured the first set after 42 minutes with 6:4.

With the 23rd set win in a row, Zverev was heading for his 12th victory and has been showing a new maturity in his game for several weeks.

The Belgian showed at the beginning of the second set that David Goffin can also play a good ball and, above all, used his strong backhand and often caught Zverev on the wrong foot. In the middle of the second set, the 21-year-old became increasingly dissatisfied and the German’s error rate went up.

After 23 sets, it was time for Goffin to break the German’s serve to 5:3 and finally to avoid the 6:3 set equaliser.

The third set developed into a tightrope act, with Goffin first leading by a nose and forcing a break to 3-2. Zverev did not get up and replied with a lot of courage with a re-break to compensate.

As a result, the third in the world rankings increased the pressure on the Belgian and took the lead with a break and 5:3. With 14 out of 15 points, Zverev was strong and served solidly to win 6:4, 3:6 and 6:3.

In his sixth Masters semi-final, Zverev will face the Croatian Marin Cilic, who beat Pablo Carreno Busta.