FOURTH seed Alexander Zverev kept his bid for an elusive first Grand Slam title alive by reaching a fourth straight semifinal at the French Open with a 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over 11th-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur on Wednesday.
Zverev will play seventh seed Casper Ruud in the last-four after holder Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal from the other quartefinal with a knee injury, and the German got there after some testing moments midway through the clash.
In women’s play, the script was ripped up as ailing second seed Aryna Sabalenka and off-color fourth seed Elena Rybakina were sent tumbling out in the quarterfinals.
Hampered by illness throughout her match, Sabalenka crashed to a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva as the Australian Open champion’s 11-match Grand Slam winning streak ground to a halt on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The 26-year-old barely looked like she could continue but soldiered on as fans on the main show court got behind her.
Andreeva took full advantage and reached her maiden major semifinal, becoming the youngest in the last four at a Grand Slam since Martina Hingis in 1997 and setting up a clash with Rybakina’s conqueror Jasmine Paolini.
Andreeva’s refreshingly fearless stroke play caught the eye at Roland Garros and she paid tribute to her coach Conchita Martinez, although she admitted that it was hard to keep track of all her instructions.
“I would say that I always play the way I want to play. We have a plan with my coach for the match, but afterwards I forget everything,” Andreeva told reporters.
The precocious Andreeva’s opponent in the next round could have been Rybakina but the Russian-born Kazakh failed to find a way past Italy’s Paolini, who battled hard to secure a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win.
“I started to play better with more consistency last year and in the middle July,” Dubai champion Paolini said. “Match by match I felt more convinced that I can play at the higher level. But it was a process. It’s not like I switch on something.
“Now, I step on court, and I say to myself I have a chance to win the match. Before, when I was playing against top players, I was like ‘okay, I need a miracle to win this match’.
“So, I was already losing the match before even playing.”
Paolini said she expected a big challenge against Andreeva.
The former US Open runner-up took control and claimed the see-sawing first set after a crucial break in the seventh game but was dragged into a dogfight in the next after the duo swapped serves again and went to a tiebreak.
Zverev fought from 4-0 down in the tiebreak and reached set point after a breathless 39-shot rally, doubling his lead in the contest shortly after and soaking up the applause from the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd.
