London (AFP)

German defending champion Alexander Zverev will be able to defend his Masters title after defeating Russia's Daniil Medvedev on Friday in London, which eliminates world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in a tournament that refuses him.

Saturday, in the semifinal, Zverev (N.7) will challenge Dominic Thiem (N.5) who finished at the top of the other group in the evening, while Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (N.6) will face Roger Federer ( N.3) in the early afternoon.

Arrived lessened by an abdominal elongation that bothered him in the service, Nadal has risen in power over the tournament but fails again for his 9th participation in the Masters, where he lost 2 finals and 3 semifinals.

The main one for him was assured even before this match, since he was assured of maintaining his place of world No.1 at the end of the season since the elimination of Novak Djokovic in two sets by Federer, Thursday night.

But the Spaniard has made a point of honor to play his luck by beating, in the early afternoon, Tsitsipas after a new fight in three sets and almost three hours.

Strong on his commitment - he did not concede a single break point of the entire game - he had to give the first set to tie-break, facing a more mobile and more enterprising opponent, with a little bit too less waste than him (7-4).

But once back to the wall, to avoid a defeat synonymous with direct elimination, he put pressure on the opposing service with his outstanding qualities of peer, including the second-serve rate earned by the opposing team of 29%. first set to 67% in the second, won 6-4.

The scenario of the last act resembled like a twin to the previous one, the Greek saving 4 break points on three different service games before losing his bet in the 11th game and the match on a forehand that hooked the net in the game next (7-5).

But Nadal was still not master of his destiny and needed a little help from Medvedev who, ironically, was precisely eliminated by the success of Nadal.

"I do not know if I will watch the game or not, I did my part of the job, now I just have to wait," he assured reporters after the match.

Zverev knew he had no right to make mistakes if he wanted to defend his title.

He also started out beating, making the break from the first commitment of the match to not let go and win the first round 6-4 in 33 minutes.

Far from giving up, Medvedev fought, but he never really found a solution to take the lead against a Zverev applied and determined.

The second set went to the tie-break but, more solid on his first beautiful, Zverev spared the fright of a third chance set by concluding with ace on his first match point (7-4).

In the doubles tournament, the French pair of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut (N.8), finalist last year, was full in his hen beating Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer and Romanian Horia Tecau (N.6) 6-3, 7-6 (4).

In the semi-final on Saturday, they will face Lukasz Kubot (POL) and Marcelo Melo (BRA), the N.2 seed. The other half will see the pair N.5, South African Raven Klaasen and New Zealander Michael Venus and the world No.1 Colombians Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

© 2019 AFP