Paris Masters: Zverev Achieves A Milestone Victory

Alexander Zverev, Paris Masters
Alexander Zverev (photo: ATP Tour video)

PARIS/WASHINGTON, November 1, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

Alexander Zverev showed everyone attending Friday’s Rolex Paris Masters inside Bercy’s Accor Arena why he’s become a master among masters — especially at the ATP Masters 1000 level.

In the quarterfinal round, the World No. 3 from Germany became just the third active player to reach 20 ATP Masters 1000 semifinals. He achieved the milestone with his 7-5, 6-4 victory over World No. 11 and 10th seed Stefano Tsitsipas of Greece in an hour and 41 minutes on Court Central.

Zverev served nine aces and struck 21 winners overall. He won 79 percent of his first-serve points, converted two of seven break points and outpointed Tsitsipas 71-60. The victory improved Zverev’s 2024 season win-loss record to 64-20.

It was just Zverev’s sixth career win over the Greek star in 16 meetings. However, the loss prevented Tsitsipas from qualifying for Turin — he’s in 11th place — and in reaching the Paris semifinals for the third straight year. He ended his season at 45-22 with one title at Monte-Carlo.

“I thought the whole match was a very good level from him,” Zverev said in his post-match interview with ATP Media. “He started off hot, had some good chances to break me in the beginning. Maybe not break point wise but game wise. I got into the match and I found my rhythm and felt more and more comfortable and am happy with the win. …

“I felt like I could hit it quite hard today and against him, if you are just pushing it back, he is going to make you pay,” Zverev added. “He is someone on the forehand side who can be so aggressive and he can move forward. So I was happy to take that away.”

Zverev joined Novak Djokovic (78) and Rafael Nadal (76) as a 20-time Masters 1000 semifinalist. Friday’s triumph was also Zverev’s 100th Top 20 win of his career.

2022 Paris Masters champ Rune remains alive

On Saturday, Zverev, who is in pursuit of his seventh career Masters 1000 title and second of the season after winning at Rome, will face 2022 Paris Masters champion Holger Rune.

The World No. 13 from Denmark fought past World No. 10 Alex de Minaur of Australia, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in two hours and 26 minutes. It was the 13th-seeded Rune’s third win in five meetings against de Minaur and the victory advanced him to his fifth career ATP a masters 1000 semifinal.

Rune improved to 12-1 at Accor Arena, with his only loss coming against former World No. 1 and eventual champion Novak Djokovic in last year’s quarterfinal round. This time, Rune recorded his first hard-court Top 10 win in a completed match since defeating then-No. 7 Djokovic in the 2022 Paris Masters final.

It was the third consecutive Paris quarterfinal for Rune, joining Rafael Nadal as the only players to reach the last eight in all first three Paris appearances this century.

Rune kept alive his slim chances of reaching the Nitto ATP Finals at Turin by outlasting the ninth seed de Minaur in a baseline battle. He hit 24 winners to 20 unforced errors, won 79 percent of his first-serve points and outpointed de Minaur 94-87.

“He was putting so much up against me. He was making every ball with quality, deep in the court and the court is quite fast here,” Rune said afterward in his interview with ATP Media. “I had to adjust my game a little bit and it was a constant battle but how I treated the last couple of games was very good. I went for it, I got it and I am very happy.”

Rune is currently in 13th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin with 3,025 points. He can still qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals. The 8th-placed de Minaur has 3,745 points, which places him in the final qualification spot.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s semifinal against Zverev, Rune said: “Sascha and I had a great match in Paris, where he took it in five. I beat him one time, he took me last time.

“He is one of the best players this year, so I will have to be very well prepared and physically recover and build on the level from this match.”

Humbert boosts French spirits with latest win

French No. 1 Ugo Humbert, playing in his second Paris Rolex Masters quarterfinal after equaling the biggest win of his career with his third-round triumph over World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in Thursday’s third round, defeated No. 28 Jordan Thompson of Australia, 6-2, 7-6 (4), in an hour and 36 minutes to advance to Saturday’s semifinals. It will be the 15th seed Humbert’s first ATP Masters 1000 semifinal appearance.

In improving to 38-23 this season, Humbert becomes the first Frenchman in the semifinals at the ATP Masters 1000 level since Richard Gasquet in 2019 at Cincinnati and he’s the second French ATP Masters 1000 semifinalist born in 1990s after Lucas Pouille (1994) at Rome in 2016 and at Monte-Carlo in 2017.

Humbert hit 22 winners against Thompson and outscored his opponent 67-52.

“I lived really well through it,” the World No. 18 Humbert said in his post-match news conference, transcribed from French. “I had a solid match from the beginning to the end. I started the first set very well with a lot of aggressiveness, and very quickly I played my strokes with ease.

“Then in the second set he fought back, and then I kept saying ‘well, twice I missed the ball and I felt I had to fight it and I could get back.’

“Then I don’t know what happened. At one point I felt a pain in my foot, and then I didn’t know how it would go. Next, he gave me possibility, and I could change and get back into the match, and I’m very proud of myself.”

Humbert is on a 12-match winning streak on French indoor hard courts after winning titles in Metz last year and Marseille in February, plus winning four straight this week at Bercy. He’s the first Frenchman to reach the Paris semifinals since Julien Benneteau in 2017.

Around the Rolex Paris Masters

In the last singles quarterfinal Friday night, 2023 finalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria lost to 2018 champion Karen Khachanov of Russia, 6-2, 6-3, in a battle of tour-leaders in indoor wins this year. The victory was Khachanov’s 14th indoor triumph, which broke a first-place tie, and it took just 68 minutes.

According to the ATP Tour website, Dimitrov needed to defeat Khachanov and then advance to the final to pass current No. 8th place Alex de Minaur in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin and move inside the cut for the Nitto ATP Finals, which he won in 2017.

Meanwhile, with the top two seeded doubles teams already eliminated, No. 3 seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Matthew Ebden of Australia started Friday as the top-seeded team left in the quarterfinals.

However, the Indian/Aussie duo were ousted by No. 6 seeds Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Nikola Mektic of Croatia, 7-6 (13), 7-5, in one hour and 45 minutes at the start of play on Court 1.

Also, unseeded Neal Skupski of Great Britain and Michael Venus of New Zealand as well as Lloyd Glssspool of Great Britain and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic are through to the semifinals after winning their respective quarterfinal matches.

Finally, No. 4 seeds Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson of Australia defeated No. 8 seeds Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Henry Patten of Great Britain, 6-7 (3), 6-1, 12-10, late Friday night to fill the final semifinal berth.

Friday’s Rolex Paris Masters results

Saturday’s Rolex Paris Masters order of play 

By the numbers

With a quarterfinal win against Jordan Thompson, Ugo Humbert becomes  the first Frenchman in the semifinals of a Masters 1000 since Richard Gasquet in 2019 at the Cincinnati Open and just the second French ATP Masters 1000 semifinalist born in the 1990s after Lucas Pouille (1994) in 2016 at Rome and in 2017 at Monte-Carlo.

“Quotable …”

“It’s the most beautiful victory in my career, and it’s the best moment I lived on a tennis court. It’s incredible. I train for that. I practice for that.

“This is what I repeated to myself in the third set. I didn’t want what happened last year to repeat itself. I also thought about the match against [Alexander] Zverev, and it made me stronger.”

— No. 15 seed Ugo Humbert of France, during his post-match news conference Thursday (translated from French), after defeating World No. 2 and second seed Carlos Alcaraz, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

 

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