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Alexander Zevrev in his fourth-round match

Photo: JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

With a dominant performance, Alexander Zverev reached the quarterfinals at the French Open for the fifth time. The 26-year-old Olympic champion defeated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 2 in 17:6 hours 1: 6, 4: 6, 3: <>.

Only in the second set did Zverev have problems at times, but fought his way back even after losing his own serve. For the third time in a row, the Hamburg native played under floodlights in the largest stadium of the Stade Roland Garros - and was allowed to celebrate for the third time. This puts Zverev in the top eight for the third year in a row at the clay court classic in Paris.

Zverev with two early breaks

Zverev started focused, Dimitrov revealed concentration problems right at the beginning. The Bulgarian made three double faults in his first two service games. Zverev took advantage of the blunders and made the second break perfect with a cracking forehand along the line to make it 3-0.

The former world number two continued to play concentrated, made several points with finely placed stop balls. Since the serve, in contrast to the third-round victory over the American Frances Tiafoe, was still safe at first, Zverev was happy to win the first set without the big emotions with a clenched fist after only 30 minutes.

Dimitrov now slowly woke up, stabilized, Zverev produced more and more unnecessary mistakes. First, the Hamburg player fended off the opponent's first two breakballs when the score was 1-1. But the Bulgarian used number three to make it 2-3 from Zverev's point of view.

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Grigor, Grigor« shouts from the ranks

The stands of the Court Philippe-Chatrier filled up visibly, the audience first hit the sides of Dimitrov at the back. Zverev was not deterred by the "Grigor, Grigor" shouts and took his opponent's serve to zero. The German scored a total of 14 points in a row. Zverev left four set points unused - on the fourth, a backhand from Dimitrov sailed into the net - 6: 4.

In the first two service games of the third round, Zverev fended off a total of seven breakballs. Even a gust of wind, which whirled up a lot of sand, did not upset him. After a 3-0 lead, Zverev conceded the 3-3, but brought the victory home safely.

Second Grand Slam final possible

Just one year after his serious ankle injury in the semifinals against Rafael Nadal at the same place, Zverev now has a great chance of reaching the second Grand Slam final of his career on the Philippe-Chatrier court. Zverev is also the favorite in the next duel with the winner of the game between Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Yoshihito Nishioka from Japan.

After the end of world number two Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner, several title contenders are missing in the lower half of the tableau. In a possible semi-final, Zverev could meet last year's Norwegian finalist Casper Ruud or youngster Holger Rune from Denmark.

mfu/dpa