Tsitsipas continued his upset of Rogers Cup seeds with a messy three-set victory over No. 2 seed and defending champion Alexander Zverev, 3-6, 7-6(11), 6-4.
To say that Tsitsipas–despite the win–wasn’t at his best in his quarterfinal match is something of an understatement. The Greek, who was so good in his round of 16 win over Novak Djokovic, struggled mightily in the two-hour and 30-minute quarterfinal. He broke Zverev in the German’s first service game but lost the next four games and was broken again at 3-5.
The match seemed destined to be over in straight sets, as Tsitsipas continued to struggle with just about every facet of his game. Zverev served for the match at 5-3, but he donated a loose service game to prolong the agony. Neither man played an emphatic tiebreak, but it was Tsitsipas who came away with the set.
The third set featured loose tennis from both guys, but Zverev capped off a dismal performance with a double-fault on match point, serving at 4-5.
Asked about his form, Zverev was characteristically frank. “I don’t think today he played that well,” he quipped. “I think the match was absolutely pathetic on all levels…. He was serving 125s to my backhand and I was missing them. That does not happen.”
Tsitsipas was a bit more circumspect, rating his own performance as “okay.”
He will take on Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson in the semifinals on Saturday.
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