By Julien Pretot
PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) – Alexander Zverev continued his quest for a maiden Grand Slam title as he recovered from a shaky start to brush aside Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar 7-6(3) 6-1 6-3 and reach the French Open semi-finals on Tuesday.
The German second seed, who has a golden chance of finally claiming a major title in the absence of the injured Carlos Alcaraz and with both world number one Jannik Sinner and 24-times Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic eliminated, rallied back from a break down in the opening set to book his place in the last four at Roland Garros for the fifth time in the last six years.
He will next face Czech Jakub Mensik or Brazil’s Joao Fonseca for a place in the final.
Asked if he was happy to be in the semi-finals again, Zverev made clear he was looking beyond the last four.
“Not really, I don’t really care. I want to keep going, be in the tournament and win the matches ahead of me, that’s my goal,” he said.
“It was a very tough test against a very good player.”
The beginning of the match between the seasoned Zverev and the much-hyped Jodar lived up to its billing with the 19-year-old Spaniard breaking for 4-2.
Zverev, however, kept his composure and worked his way back into the contest, playing a succession of crosscourt backhands to pull his opponent wide. He levelled for 5-5 and powered away in a one-sided tiebreak.
The loss of the opening set was too much to handle for Jodar, who faded away and never got a chance to threaten a comeback.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by Ed Osmond)
