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.