MIAMI-, The German tennis player Alexander Zverev defeated the Hungarian on Thursday Fábián Marozsán and advanced to their second semifinals of the Masters 1000 de Miamiwhere he could experience a new duel with the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz.
Zverev, number five in the ATP ranking, ended Marozsán’s (57th) surprising run in Miami by a score of 6-3 and 7-5 at the start of Thursday’s program, which includes the two semifinals of the women’s WTA 1000.
The German, winner of five Masters 1000 titles, still hasn’t given up a set in Miami and will now face in the semifinals the winner of Alcaraz’s clash in the afternoon against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Zverev and Alcaraz have met twice this year, with a victory for the German in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January and another for the Spaniard in the same phase of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 two weeks ago.
That duel experienced an unusual interruption when an army of bees burst onto the track and attacked Alcaraz, who received a sting.
“Carlos is a great talent. He beat me clearly in Indian Wells and now I want to see him on the court again, just as he would want to see me after the Australian Open,” Zverev told Tennis Channel.
The other semifinal in Miami will be played by Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner in a repeat of last year’s final, in which the Russian tennis player won.
Zverev, 26, advanced to his seventeenth Masters 1000 semifinal and second in Miami, six years after losing in the final against American John Isner.
To achieve this, he had to stop the unexpected run of Marozsán, one of the great sensations of the tournament by eliminating two members of the ATP top-10: the Danish Holger Rune (7th) and the Australian Alex de Minaur (10th).
The Hungarian, who will enter the top-50 for the first time at 24 years old, had already proven to be a dangerous rival for the best rackets on the circuit with his shocking victory last year against Alcaraz at the Rome Masters 1000.
Women’s semi-finals
In the first duel between the two, Zverev did not allow himself to be surprised by Marozsán and offered a careful performance on serve that allowed him to take the initiative in both sets.
The Hungarian trailed from his early loss of serve at the beginning of the first set and then made it easy for the German to pocket the set with a final double fault.
In the second set he settled better on the court but did not take advantage of the only break ball he had available and Zverev, very effective on serve, settled the match after one hour and 37 minutes of play.
“I’m happy to be back in these final phases of these tournaments, playing against the best players in the world,” the German congratulated himself.
Thursday’s day also held the two semifinals of the women’s WTA 1000, where none of the first three seeds (Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff) reached.
The Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, three-time champion of the tournament (2009, 2011 and 2016), opened fire against the Kazakh Elena Rybakina and later the American Danielle Collins faced the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Source: AFP
