Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev is in the semifinals of the ATP Finals in Turin and challenges top favorite Novak Djokovic.
The world number three from Hamburg took the victory they needed to get into the knockout round on Thursday with a 6: 2, 6: 4 over the obviously ailing Poland Hubert Hurkacz.
As the runner-up in the Red Group, there will be a duel with Grand Slam record champion Djokovic for the fifth time this year on Saturday.
"Mentally it wasn't easy because I knew I had to win," said Zverev: "I'm very happy to be in the semifinals." He remembers his strong comeback victory in the Olympic semifinals in Tokyo. The 24-year-old lost the other three this year's comparisons with the Serbian world number one, including the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and most recently the semifinals of the US Open in five sets. Overall, the balance of the two after victories is clearly 7: 3 for Djokovic.
After the defeat against defending champion Daniil Medvedev, Zverev had been under a lot of pressure against Hurkacz, if he had lost, he would have been eliminated in the group stage, as in the previous year.
With the victory of the German, however, the semi-final hopes of the Italian successor Jannik Sinner, who will meet the Russian Medvedev, who has already been established as group winner, on Thursday evening (9:00 p.m. / Sky).
On Thursday, the Pole Hurkacz, who had been rumored to have an ankle injury before the game, gave up his serve twice.
Hurkacz looked constrained, but fought with great morale.
Since the top German player did not shine either and his opponent took full risk, at least the second set stayed balanced for a long time.