Paris (AFP)

Alexander Zverev, 7th in the world, was too strong for Rafael Nadal (2nd), Saturday in the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 in Paris: the German eliminated the Spaniard 6-4, 7-5 and will face the Russian Daniil Medvedev (5th ) for an unprecedented final at Bercy.

Zverev had never passed the quarterfinals of the Parisian indoor tournament (2018) and the Russian the second round.

In 8 participations, Nadal reached the final there in 2007 but never won.

From there to see it as a curse?

“Not at all!” Exclaimed the Spaniard. It's almost my first hard tournament of the whole year, it's a complicated surface for me, I came here when I could and it It is true that I had problems here, but I have always been at least in the quarterfinals, there is no curse. Other than that others have played better than me ... "

Very early in the game, in fact, Zverev imposed his grip: he made the break in the first set to lead 2-1 and held his throw-in without trembling, until the end.

Powerful on serve, solid in rally and effective in touchdown, he seemed to have to replay the same scenario in the second set when he took Nadal's serve to lead again 2-1.

This time, however, the Spaniard was tougher.

The first time he had the opportunity to come back to 3-3, but Zverev saved the break point after a magnificent exchange.

On his momentum, the German offered himself three double break points (0-40), but Nadal came back, again erased a break point before saving his faceoff.

- "Too late" -

And while the king of Roland Garros seemed able - perhaps - to reverse the game after having erased his late break, it was Zverev who was able to make the last effort.

By breaking to lead 6-5, he put himself in a position to serve for the game.

And he did not miss the opportunity: in the blink of an eye he offered himself three match points (40-0) and, despite a double fault, he concluded on the 2nd.

"He's playing very well, he's just won two tournaments, he's very confident, his serve is huge. I returned better than the other days but at first it was impossible, he was serving bombs and picking them. good areas all the time, I think I understood too late that I had to go back (on the way back), "Nadal analyzed.

The troubles Zverev encounters in his private life, and notably the abuse accusations made by an ex-girlfriend, do not appear to have had a negative effect on his game.

In search of a third consecutive trophy after his titles in the two tournaments played back to back in Cologne (Germany) in October, the 23-year-old German thus stretches his streak of consecutive victories to 12.

His last defeat dates back to the round of 16 at Roland Garros, against the young Italian Jannik Sinner.

Finalist of the last US Open, he will try to win his 4th Masters 1000 title after Rome and Canada in 2017, the year of his birth, and Madrid in 2018, year in which he won the London Masters which brings together the 8 best players of the season.

He will be there again this year, alongside Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman.

© 2020 AFP