ATP Finals: serve giant Zverev beats Federer and is in the finals

Alexander Zverev won his semi-final at the ATP Finals in London with a great performance. He beat Roger Federer 7:5, 7:6 (5) on Saturday afternoon.

By Florian Goosmann from London

In the past two duels between Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev, a pattern was revealed that the German often goes through: a strong beginning – and then the crack. Last year, at the ATP Finals, the two fought each other in two highly intense sets – Zverev lost in the third set, Federer took him 6:1. Similar to the Hopman Cup at the beginning of the season: Zverev won the first match 7:6 (4), the rest of the match Federer made with 6:0, 6:2 fixed.

Also this week, against Novak Djokovic, Zverev had gone through this pattern, against John Isner then showed the other side – with a concentrated performance from beginning to end. And that, as everyone agreed, was also necessary against Federer.

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Both players started their match with sovereign service games, even though Federer had to give up his first service, especially at the beginning. The Swiss indicated early on in the rallies that he wanted to take the often predictable game of the German apart with a lot of variation. At 2:3, he used the stop twice in a row as an attack ball; again and again, he brought Zverev to the net with short, flat slice balls, where he had problems several times to score.

Zverev seemed to be annoyed by Federer’s feints, but remained concentrated. He impressed above all on the forehand and with strong serves (average in set one: 217 km/h, 68 percent in the field, with 86 percent points won) and took advantage of Federer’s weak phase at 5:6, including a spectacular forehand passing ball from full throttle. Zverev breakte to zero – the rate win.

At the beginning of passage two, however, Zverev briefly left the first serve, Federer came at 1:1 to three break balls in a row, the third he used with a courageous backhand drive along the line. The first serve, however, remained an unsteady affair for the 20-time Major-Champ, Zverev took advantage of it with the immediate rebreak. At 4:3 and 0:30 he sensed a small chance for a preliminary decision, but Federer picked up the pace in time.

In the tiebreak, everything remained in line for a long time until Federer put a volley in the net at 4-5. Zverev then converted his first match point. This is the 21-year-old’s third victory in his sixth duel with Federer, most recently at last year’s Masters tournament in Montréal.

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The second semi-final will take place on the evening of the world number one Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson (from 21 o’clock CET, live on Sky). The final will start on Sunday at 19 o’clock CET.

The ATP Finals group stands at a glance