Greece’s world number five,  Stefanos Tsitsipas faced off with Germany’s world number six, Alexander Zverev in the French Open semi-final at Court Philippe-Chatrier. 

After battling for 3 hours and 37 minutes, and five sets, it is Tsitsipas who won the match 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3. He will play his first-ever Grand Slam final on Sunday.

In the fourth set, Zverev seemed down and out after two sets, having won only six games. But the 24-year-old won a break each in set 3 and set 4 without dropping any service game. He won the set 6-4 to take the match into the final set.

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Zverev won the third set by 6-4. In the ninth game, he was not happy with a line call on the baseline on his side of the court. The ball was initially called out. After inspection of the ball mark, the chair umpire called it in and awarded the point to Tsitsipas. Zverev felt that the call was made by the linesman while he was striking the ball, meaning that the point had to be replayed. But the umpire felt that the call came after Zverev hit the ball. He was heard saying, “That’s bulls..t”, to the umpire.  

Despite the altercation, Zverev held the nerve and won the next game to close out the set. 

In the second set, Zverev broke early, like Tsitsipas in the first set, to take a 3-0 lead. But it all fell apart too soon for the German as he lost the next six games, and with it, the set.

In the first set, Tsitsipas started with a break in Zverev’s first service game. The first set passed by in 38 minutes. The rallies were kept short. Losing the first service game proved too costly for the German as he hardly had freebies in offer from Tsitsipas. There were glimpses of Zverev posing threats in the last game of the set. But the Greek clinically closed out the set by holding his serves to win 6-3.

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Stefanos Tstsipas defeated Daniil Medvedev to reach his third consecutive Grand Slam semi-final. The 22-year-old won 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 in the quarterfinal.

Alexander Zverev on the other hand defeated Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 in a 96-minute match to advance to the French Open semi-finals.