Alexander Zverev took down Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3 7-5 and advanced to the Madrid Open semifinal where he will face Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Alexander Zverev likes playing in Madrid as the German triumphed twice already in his career at this event. The German simply loves the conditions, they suit his game and he generally picks Madrid as one of his favourite venues to play at. He faced Auger-Aliassime who has been shaky in the past few weeks but still managed to bag a few decent results.
In Madrid, he reached the quarterfinal but his journey ended there. Zverev opened with an early break and just built upon from there. He never faced any issues on his own serve as Auger struggled with returning the ball and generally staying in rallies on return. Zverev dropped only 3 points on his serve while breaking Auger twice for the 6-3 score.
In the 2nd set, we saw a fiercer battle between the players mostly because Zverev complicated things a bit. He was overeager sometimes resulting in several double faults. He also allowed Auger a couple of break points but the Canadian failed to convert them. Auger still struggled on his own serve and he lost his serve rather early in the 2nd set to give Zverev the lead.
At 1-4, Zverev had 4 break points but failed to seal the deal. He then committed a few more double faults (8 overall in the 2nd set) to lose his serve and make it 3-4. Auger made it 4-4 and Zverev had to save a break point in the next game. He then had two match points at 4-5 but failed to use them. Eventually, he got another one and used it to finish it off with 7-5. A lot of complications for Zverev but he survived.