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MELBOURNE, 24 Jan: Alexander Zverev made no mistake with his second chance to close out a win over No. 2-ranked Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday night and moved into an Australian Open semifinal against two-time finalist Daniil Medvedev.
\nThe sixth-seeded Zverev was a up a break in the third set at 5-3 and missed a chance to serve it out but the Olympic champion didn\u2019t blink when he got another chance in the fourth, finishing off a 6-1, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-4 victory.
\nAlcaraz won Wimbledon last year and was the only player to beat 10-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam match in 2023. The 20-year-old Spaniard won\u2019t get the chance in Australia this time.
\nIt was Zverev\u2019s first win over a top-5 player at a Grand Slam, and the reward was a spot in the semis for the seventh time at a major.
\n\u201cLook, I\u2019m playing one of the best players in the world, especially over the last two years,\u201d Zverev said. \u201cHe\u2019s been No. 1, No. 2 constantly. He\u2019s won two Grand Slams. And when you\u2019re up 6-1, 6-3, 5-2, you start thinking. I mean, we\u2019re all human.
\n\u201cThen when you start winning, obviously your brain starts going. It\u2019s not always helpful but I\u2019m happy I got it at the end. I fought back quite well in the end, didn\u2019t let go.\u201d
\nMedvedev, a two-time finalist in Australia, outlasted ninth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to make it to the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the third time in four years. Djokovic will play Jannik Sinner in the other semifinal.
\nZverev said he\u2019d been taking some beatings from Medvedev recently but \u201cmaybe this will be it. Maybe this will be the place.\u201d
\nNo. 12-seeded Zheng Qinwen and Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska won women\u2019s quarterfinals on Day 11 and will play their first Grand Slam semi when they meet after a night sleep.
\nThe sixth-seeded Zverev was on top of Alcaraz early, getting 16 of his 18 first serves into play in the first set and winning the point on all but two.
\nHe raced through the first set in 29 minutes and two service breaks in the second gave him a 2-0 lead.
\nJust after midnight, Zverev was serving for a straight sets win when Alcaraz broke for the first time. Alcaraz got back to 5-5 when he chased a shot into the doubles alley and knocked a backhand down the line, beaming a big smile and shaking his racket in a gesture that suggested: \u201cHello, still here.\u201d
\nHe won the last seven points of the tiebreaker to make it 2-1, flashing a big smile after earning four set points when he chased a ball wide and hit a forehand passing shot.
\nAfter an exchange of service breaks to open the fourth and some energy-sapping rallies that had both players sprinting side-to-side to make incredible shots, Zverev got another chance to close out after breaking in the ninth game.
\nHe clinched the victory about 1:20 a.m. local time, letting out a scream of relief and shaking both arms in celebration.
\nMedvedev\u2019s celebration was more like a sigh of relief. He led 4-2 in the fourth set but No. 9 Hurkacz rallied to force a fifth and took it to a grueling four hours.
\n\u201cI\u2019m so destroyed right now,\u201d Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open winner, said in his on-court interview as he stood with his hands clasped behind his head.
\nThe No. 3-ranked Medvedev has had a tough run in Melbourne, including a nearly 4 1\/2-hour, five-set second-round win that finished at 3:39 a.m.
\nThe women\u2019s semifinal lineup was completed when Zheng won 10 of the last 11 games to fend off Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1 and Yastremska beat beat Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-4. Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff will meet in the other semifinal.
\nThe 19-year-old Gauff beat Sabalenka in the U.S. Open final and is on a 12-match streak in majors. Sabalenka is on a 12-match winning run at Melbourne Park.
\nZheng, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last year, regained control midway through the second set after Kalinskaya won six of the last seven points to take the first set in a tiebreaker.
\n\u201cReally excited. First time for me,\u201d in the semifinals, Zheng said. \u201cOf course I\u2019m proud of myself. But this is just the beginning \u2014 I still need to play tomorrow.\u201d
\nNo. 93-ranked Yastremska won three matches in the qualifying tournament and became only the second qualifier to reach the women\u2019s singles semis in Australia in the Open era.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s nice to make history because at that time I was not born,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m super happy (but) very tired.\u201d
\nNoskova beat top-ranked Iga Swiatek on her way to her first Slam quarterfinal but after getting an early break, was no match for Yastremska.
\nAfter the match, Yastremska wrote a message on a TV camera lens and later explained it was \u201cabout the Ukrainian fighters, that I\u2019m very proud of them. They really deserve a huge respect.\u201d
\nShe said she\u2019s inspired by representing her country, which has been at war for nearly two years since the Russian invasion.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s my mission here,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I do well, I can get — tough to express. I\u2019m just trying to give the signal to Ukraine that I\u2019m really proud of it.\u201d (AP)<\/p>\n
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MELBOURNE, 24 Jan: Alexander Zverev made no mistake with his second chance to close out a win over No. 2-ranked Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday night and moved into an Australian Open semifinal against two-time finalist Daniil Medvedev. The sixth-seeded Zverev was a up a break in the third set at 5-3 and missed a chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}