A great Zverev stops Nadal in the semifinals

A great Alexander Zverev stopped Nadal in Paris.

Bercy is not Roland Garros, and the Spaniard, who had struggled during the week, met a specialist in fast surfaces whose hand did not tremble despite missing successive opportunities to have resolved the meeting with greater relief.

He won 6-4 and 7-5, in one hour and 35 minutes, and will seek his fourth Masters 1000 against Andrei Medvedev this Sunday, after winning in 2017 in Canada and Rome and a year later in Madrid.

At this point in his career, after several three years and the display of successes brilliantly polished, Nadal is still pursuing new goals.

Last Wednesday he became the fourth player in history to win 1,000 games, joining

,

and

.

Paris-Bercy is, along with Cincinnati and Shanghai, the only one of the Masters 1000 that resists him, a juicy piece to collect, with which he also tried to equalize the 36 titles in this category achieved by

.

There are the ATP Finals, which will bring together the eight best of the course from November 15 to 22, another of the conquests that he has not yet made his own.

All this, without a doubt, complementary records in a tennis player who on October 11 won his thirteenth Roland Garros and equaled Federer's 20 Grand Slam titles.

Zverev

, a recent winner of two tournaments in Cologne, entered the game well, with a break in the third game that allowed him to function with some relief.

The 23-year-old German made his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, lost to

after leading two sets.

With more slowness than his arrival on the circuit announced, with the help of

Zverev he is adding experiences at the highest level.

Another first set on loan

As happened in his debut against

and in the quarterfinal match against

, Nadal missed the first set.

The Hamburg player capitalized on the early gap and became strong with serve, one of his great assets: 78% of first and nine

in the set.

Zverev had achieved his only victory last year against Nadal, in the group stage of the ATP Finals, 6-2, 6-4.

It was the closest and most reliable reference, despite the five previous achieved by the Spanish, when both tournaments were played indoors.

Zverev repeated the harvest in the same game of the second set and had a ball to reach 4-1 and serve.

It is not convenient to give lives to the number two in the world, as he has shown throughout a career based on his extraordinary combativeness.

Next, Nadal placed his opponent before the first delicate situation of the match, by creating the first two

balls

.

The German neutralized them, in a show of integrity.

Nadal decided to subtract close to the line in the first set and moved away his position in the second, something that gave him more chances to put the ball in play.

However, he had to suffer again and face four other breakage balls that would have left him on the brink of the abyss.

This time Zverev quickly paid his indulgence, delivering his serve after committing a double fault at 30-30, wrinkled as soon as he saw the southpaw coming.

Tempered, without the self-destructive outbursts that have done him so much damage, the one from Hamburg held on from 4-4 and managed to break in the eleventh game.

In addition to serving, he stood out for his magnificent backhand and totaled 35 winners.

He was the one who did the most to win, without having to adapt to a surface that fits him like a glove.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Rafael Nadal

• Novak Djokovic

TennisEarly, forceful, indefatigable: Nadal's 1,000 victories draw his best features

TennisRamón Delgado, the first 'victim' of Nadal's 1,000 victories: "He was a child, but he already looked different"

TennisDjokovic shakes off the 'Carreño syndrome' and will play against Tsitsipas in the semifinals

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