Alexander Zverev beats Jakub Mensik to set up latest grand slam title chance

Alexander Zverev’s march towards an expected first grand slam title continued with a semi-final victory over Jakub Mensik.

The second seed is trying to shake off the tag of best male player never to win a slam, and the tennis gods appear to be smiling on him in Paris.

Zverev has seen his big rivals for the title fall away while he has eased through the draw, dropping just two sets, and he overcame a third-set wobble in a 7-5 6-2 3-6 6-3 success against 26th seed Mensik.

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The 20-year-old Czech has announced himself as a likely major contender in the near future this fortnight, knocking out Alex De Minaur, Andrey Rublev and fellow young gun Joao Fonseca.

His run has been all the more impressive considering Mensik needed a wheelchair to get back to the locker room after collapsing in the heat after his second-round match.

But he had spent four hours more on court in reaching the last four than Zverev and he could not sustain the consistent level needed to really challenge the German.

Sunday will be Zverev’s fourth slam final and second in Paris after he lost to Carlos Alcaraz from two-sets-to-one up two years ago.

He came even closer in his maiden final against Dominic Thiem at the US Open in 2020, blowing a two-set lead and losing in a deciding tie-break, while he was well beaten by Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open final last year.

It appeared Zverev may have built up too much scar tissue ever to take the final step but patience looks to have paid off, and he will be a huge favourite against whichever Italian out of Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi he faces in the final.

For 10 games this was a tight, high-quality contest, with both men looking