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Olympic champion Alexander Zverev in Madrid
Photo: Manu Fernandez / dpa
Olympic champion Alexander Zverev reached the final of the tennis tournament in Madrid.
The defending champion prevailed against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 2 early on Sunday morning and at the same time took revenge for the semifinals in Monte Carlo three weeks ago.
The 25-year-old used his first match point at 1:09 a.m. local time after 1:53 hours.
In the final, the German number one will face Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday (6:30 p.m. / Sky).
The young Spanish star had previously defeated the Serbian world number one Novak Djoković in 3:35 hours 6: 7 (5: 7), 7: 5 and 7: 6 (7: 5) in the first semi-final.
Zverev showed a very solid performance against Tsitsipas.
In the first set he used his first break chance to lead 4:3 and got the first round after only 34 minutes.
After that, the native of Hamburg slacked off a bit and made a few double mistakes.
Tsitsipas uses this to balance sentences.
But at the beginning of the third section, Zverev was back.
The third in the world rankings managed a quick break and didn't let the lead be taken away.
Alcaraz gained confidence
from Nadal and
Djoković
Alcaraz had previously underlined his current exceptional form and did not let world number one Djokovic stop him in his triumphal march in his home country of Spain.
In the previous round he had only eliminated his great idol Rafael Nadal.
This makes him the first professional tennis player to defeat both Nadal and Djokovic in a clay-court tournament.
"It gives me a lot of self-confidence for the final on Sunday," said the Spaniard.
Djoković paid tribute to the young star after the game.
"For someone his age, he plays very mature and fearless, that's impressive," said the number one in the world.
see/dpa
