PARIS — German third seed Alexander Zverev became just the third active player to reach ATP Masters semi-finals at the Paris Masters, where he overcame Stefanos Tsitsipas to end the Greek’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes in Turin, Italy.
While the opening set was a tight affair, the second was one-way traffic as world number three Zverev built a 5-3 lead before wrapping up the victory in one hour and 40 minutes.
Zverev served well against the 10th seed, especially in the second set, firing down nine aces and winning 71 per cent of his first serves in the contest.
“I thought the whole match was a very good level from him,” Zverev said according to Reuters.
“I got into the match and I found my rhythm and felt more and more comfortable and am happy with the win.”
The 27-year-old, who improved his head-to-head record with Tsitsipas to 6-10, joins Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal as the only active players to reach 20 or more Masters semi-finals.
However, the defeat means former world number three Tsitsipas’ run of five straight ATP Finals appearances is over.
“At the beginning, he was outplaying me but then I found my rhythm from the baseline,” said Zverev on court according to AFP.
“And when I had my chance I used it in the first set.”
Indeed once Zverev broke late in the opener and early in the second, it became a comfortable ride to just his sixth win against his long-time Greek rival.
The loss ends the chances of the world number 11 Tsitsipas of reaching the end-of-year ATP Finals – having won the showpiece event in 2019.
Tsitsipas and Zverev started cautiously with both offering up opportunities for early breaks in their first service games.
But they soon found their range as the first set looked destined to require a tie-break to separate the pair on the quick surface at Paris’ Bercy Arena.
However, the first break points of the match eventually came with Tsitsipas serving at 5-5, the German claiming the second on a double fault.
The Greek saved two set points and secured a break-back point of his own but dumped a shot into the net at the end of the longest rally of the set as Zverev held on.
Tsitsipas’s shoulders visibly sagged as he offered up break point after break point at 1-1 in the second set.
When he dragged a shot long to end a game which had lasted over 15 minutes, his opponent was now firmly in the ascendancy and proved it by consolidating the break comfortably.
The Greek rallied to hold his next service games but struggled to challenge on the Zverev serve.
With the win, 13th seed Rune kept alive his slim hopes of qualifying for the ATP finals.
Local favourite Ugo Humbert continued his fine form after knocking out Carlos Alcaraz in the previous round, securing a 6-2 7-6(4) win over Jordan Thompson.
Zverev is chasing his seventh Masters 1000 title and second of the season, having won in Rome. After improving to 6-10 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Tsitsipas, the German will face Australian Alex de Minaur or Dane Holger Rune in the semi-finals.
“I felt like I could hit it quite hard today and against him, if you are just pushing it back, he is going to make you pay,” Zverev said on Tsitsipas.
“He is someone on the forehand side who can be so aggressive and he can move forward. So I was happy to take that away.”
Tsitsipas ends the season holding a 45-22, highlighted by his run to the title in Monte-Carlo. It is the first time the World No. 11 has finished the season outside the Top 10 in the PIF ATP Rankings since 2018.
Zverev, also, spoke on the possibility of finishing as World number two ahead of Carlos Alcaraz.
Zverev has failed to reach the quarter-finals at a tournament on just four occasions in 2024. That level of consistency has seen him climb back to World number three and he is just 315 points behind Alcaraz.
While there is still a chance to finish the season ahead of the Spaniard, Zverev made an honest admission about his season compared to Alcaraz.
“I mean, for sure they are No. 1 and 2 right now. You can see that they both won two Grand Slams this year, so there is no question about that,” Zverev told reporters at the Paris Masters when asked about Alcaraz and Sinner.
“You know, even if I finish ahead of Carlos this year, which is still a possibility, you know, I still believe that they’re No. 1 and 2, just by the things that they have achieved, right?”
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