Zverev eases into second French Open semi-final with win against Alcaraz

Throughout the past 10 days, as the French Open took shape, all of the attention in the men’s draw rested on a select few players.

Between the phenomenon of Carlos Alcaraz’s teenage breakthrough, the attempts of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to tread deeper into tennis’s history books and even the opportunity presented to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the vacant bottom half, few have had much to say about Alexander Zverev.

But a player rises to No 3 in the rankings for a reason. On a cool evening at Roland Garros, he showed why, remaining rock solid against an erratic Alcaraz and snuffing out the surrounding hype as he won 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7) to reach the semi-finals.

Alcaraz had started the match immediately trying to impose his brand of high-octane, all-court tennis. But despite his intensity, his timing was completely off. Unforced errors flowed freely from his forehand and backhand alike. Zverev was far more consistent. He soaked up the Spaniard’s inside-out forehand with his own excellent backhand, which remarkably did not concede a single unforced error for two and a half sets. He served well, he pressed when needed and his historic weaknesses, his second serve and forehand, held up.

In the second set Alcaraz produced plenty of his usual spectacular moments but he simply could not find his level. As the third set began, he had hit four times as many groundstroke errors as Zverev, an enormous 28 to the German’s seven.

By the third set, Alcaraz was close to the edge and he eventually faced break point at 4-4. Without hesitation, he saved it with a bold drop shot, held and then made his move. With an exquisite return game, he extended the match after ending a long exchange with a brilliant forehand passing shot, then