It was hot in the Ariake Tennis Park.

Still.

At 7:59 p.m. local time, the thermometer showed 28 degrees, plus the high humidity.

At the request of the players, the matches were moved to the afternoon and evening to escape the midday heat in Tokyo.

Many had complained, particularly the Russian Daniil Medvedev.

Pirmin Clossé

Sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

When a referee asked him during his round of 16 match on Wednesday whether he was okay and could continue playing, Medvedev replied: “I can finish the game, but I could also die.

Will you take responsibility when I die? ”He went black in view of the inhumane conditions on the court, he said afterwards.

The organizers reacted.

When Alexander Zverev started his quarter-final match in the Olympic tennis tournament on Thursday, the sun had already set.

Nevertheless, the humidity was oppressive.

As always these days.

Now tennis players are used to warm and humid conditions.

On their professional tour, they basically follow the sun all year round.

But they have seldom found the heat as ruthless as in Tokyo.

Djokovic and the "Golden Slam"

It's a borderline experience.

For all.

That's why Zverev's match against the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy was also sweaty.

Whereby that was actually mainly due to the climatic conditions and less to the opponent.

The German top player prevailed against the number 68 in the world with 6: 4, 6: 1 without any problems.

It took him just 67 minutes.

He was still drenched in sweat.

Above all, Zverev could once again rely on his serve.

He had already served impressively the day before against the Georgian Nikolos Bassilashvili. He won his first seven service games in a row to zero. This time he allowed the experienced Chardy a point much earlier. In the third game of the first set he made a double fault. In the end, however, the record was no less impressive: In his seven service games of the day, Zverev had ultimately lost exactly seven rallies.

Zverev had already reached the quarter-finals as the first German tennis professional since Tommy Haas 21 years ago. Now he is reaching for the first German individual medal for men since his silver in Sydney. The hurdle before the final could not be higher, however. Novak Djokovic, world number one, winner of 20 Grand Slam tournaments, including the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year.

The Serb wants the "Golden Slam", victory in the five most important tennis tournaments within one season. And so far he has not given the impression that he wants to let Tokyo spoil it. In the quarter-finals on Thursday, he dealt with Japan's hopefuls Kei Nishikori 6: 2, 6: 0. And shortly afterwards he won the quarterfinals in mixed with compatriot Nina Stojanovic against the Germans Laura Siegemund and Kevin Krawietz 6: 1, 6: 2.

For Zverev, the duel with the gold favorite will be another chance to set the supposedly overdue big exclamation mark of his tennis career. He has already beaten Djokovic. Twice in eight duels so far. Most impressively certainly in the final of the ATP Finals 2018. That was, however, and this is Zverev's biggest problem in his current career phase, the only time that he succeeded on a really big stage. In the Grand Slams, the German has always drawn the short straw against the really big opponents.

Of the duels with opponents from the top 10 in the world rankings, he lost ten out of ten there. In Tokyo, Zverev mastered his duties with ease. He almost always does that now. He defeated the Lu Yen-Hsun from Taiwan, the Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan, Bassilaschwili and now Chardy. All in two sentences. In doubles he was eliminated from the quarterfinals with Jan-Lennard Struff. A small disappointment, but possibly also an advantage in view of the omission of the double burden. Because it will be hot and exhausting against Djokovic again. It almost always is at the moment. Whether in the morning, at noon or in the evening.