The Halle tournament has its semi-finalists. Does Zverev still have a shot at his dream title?

The tournament in Halle, Germany, saw a full quarter-final on Friday. Tournament number one Daniil Medvedev, his compatriot Rublyov and the home favourite Alexander Zverev showed off their skills. Which tennis players remained in contention for the overall victory, where the legendary Roger Federer triumphed ten times?

Alexander Bublik

Kazakh Bublik was the first to rejoice in advancing to the top four. Throughout the event in Halle, he presented himself with varied tennis with stoppages and frequent changes of pace. A round earlier, the Kazakh ended the dream of triumph at his home tournament for Jan-Lenard Struff and on Friday he faced the tournament’s top four, Italy’s Sinner.

It was the varied tennis of the Kazakh representative that had a big part in how the match turned out. The Italian was injured after one of the ends and retired after losing the first set. The nearly two-meter tall Kazakh will play his second semifinal of the year. He failed in his first one in Marseille in February.

Alexander Zverev

The German tennis player has already played in the final twice in Halle. Both times he was defeated. This year, the Hamburg native has the highest ambitions. In the first set against Chilean Jarry, the home player presented a very reliable performance. He recorded only three unforced errors, got a break at the end and won the set 7:5.

The second set brought two key moments. The first was the loss of Chilan’s serve and the second was the seventh game. Zverev served in that one and needed 21 exchanges to hold serve. Jarry reached for a break and a return, but the 26-year-old German held his serve to win the match.

After winning 7:5, 6:3, Zverev is now two steps away from the coveted triumph. It may well be the hardest. In Saturday’s semi-final he will face Kazakhstan’s Bublik, and the German’s record is a warning to him, as Bublik has the upper hand so far with a 2:1 ratio.

The Kazakh tennis player was also successful in the most important duel so far last year in the final of the tournament in Montpellier. Alexander Bublik won his only ATP title there. Zverev has collected many more tournament titles, but now he is only thinking about the one from Halle and is closer to it than at the beginning of the week.

Russian favourites

Daniil Medvedev has so far successfully fulfilled the role of tournament number one. Against the experienced Spaniard Bautista-Agut, he lost the first set in the end after two quite unnecessary errors. In the second set, the Russian had to put out the fire in his first three games on serve, he managed these situations.

However, Medvedev did not play at ease and the 35-year-old Spaniard produced a more solid performance. This was confirmed in the tiebreak, which Roberto Bautista-Agut won convincingly. He will be fighting for his second final of the year.

The other Russian, Andrey Rubljov, also lost the opening set against the Dutch Griekspoor, but that is where the similarities with Medvedev end. Rubljov withstood a wild stretch of the second set with three breaks in a row to win it 6:3. The deciding set belonged to the Russian from the start, and after taking advantage of the fifth match point, he advanced to his fourth semifinal in 2023. He converted all the previous ones into a qualification to the final.

Source: ATP, Terra Wortmann Open, TennisPortal