"It's one of my best games of the season. Grigor played amazingly, it could have turned one way or the other. I was lucky at times, like when I saved my serve. in the third set. I'm exhausted, I can hardly speak, "Zverev commented.

Finalist last year, he will face the American Marcos Giron (57th) or the Norwegian Casper Ruud (8th) on Friday for a place in the last four.

The 24-year-old Olympic champion from Tokyo appeared to get his hands on the game by breaking in the first set to lead 4-3.

But loudly supported by the public, the 30-year-old Bulgarian, semi-finalist at Bercy in 2019, hung on and equalized at 5-5 before giving up the first set in a tie break.

This allowed Zverev to taunt the spectators a little ... and to attract frank whistles.

"I love playing in Paris, whether at Roland Garros or here: the public is always very noisy, gives a lot of energy, whether for or against me," he nevertheless assured.

More creative but a little more crumbly, Dimitrov held the showdown in the second set until he landed a decisive second game by saving two match points.

And this time, it was he who clearly took the upper hand to break away 5-0 then 6-1 with five balls to tie a set everywhere, the third being the right one.

The match then seemed to change, but Zverev saved three break points on his first face-off of the set before leveling at 1-1.

Again, the German saved three break points to come back to 3-3.

And in the process, it was he who took the service of his opponent on his first break point.

The German Alexander Zverev (d) winner of the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (l) at the Masters 1000 in Paris, November 4, 2021 Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP

He confirmed on his own face-off, not without saving a break point and, more than an hour after his first match point, he concluded on his third, on the service of Dimitrov.

With now 54 victories since the start of the season, including 27 for only two defeats since the start of the Olympics, Zverev is only one game away from the record of the year for Stefanos Tsitsipas (3rd in the world) who retired as soon as he entered the running at Bercy.

© 2021 AFP