PARIS — Alexander Zverev, the No. 3 seed, returned to the semifinals of the French Open with a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7) victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, ending the Spanish 19-year-old’s stirring run at Roland Garros.
Zverev, 25, also snuffed out Alcaraz’s rousing comeback in this quarterfinal. Zverev, beaten by Alcaraz in the Madrid Open final ahead of Roland Garros, was the more consistent and convincing player for nearly three sets before Alcaraz lifted his game.
As usual, that was quite a sight as he produced winning drop shots, audacious returns and full-cut forehand winners that left the 6-foot-6 Zverev starring wistfully at the ball marks on the clay.
With a flurry of brilliant tennis, Alcaraz, the No. 6 seed, took the third set and with another surge in the fourth set, he broke Zverev’s serve when the German star served for the match at 5-4.
This match, by this stage, was well worthy of a tiebreaker, and both players produced excellence under duress. Alcaraz had one set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker and failed to convert it when he made an unforced error with his backhand into the top of the net. Zverev missed a backhand of his own on his first match point but he won the next two points to close out the match, finishing off the victory with a bold backhand return winner down the line that Alcaraz, one of the quickest men in tennis, could not come close to reaching.
“At the end of the day, I knew I had to play my absolutely best tennis today from the start, and I’m happy I did that,” Zverev said. “Obviously he kept on coming back. He’s an incredible player. I told him at the net, he’s going to win this tournament a lot of times, not only once, and I just hope I can win it before he starts beating us all, and we’ll have no chance at all.”
Zverev, despite his fine performance on Tuesday, is still a long way from winning his first Grand Slam singles title. In the semifinals, he will face the winner of Tuesday’s second match: a night session between No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who has won the French Open a record 13 times.