Alexander Zverev maintained his World No. 2 rank a few more months thanks to his Australian Open semi-final, but later fell to World No. 3. He suffered a first round exit at Wimbledon that worried fans, but Canada is proving very fruitful for the 28-year-old German (specially without Sinner or Alcaraz nearby), and has survived a tense match against defending champion Alexei Popyrin, 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-3, to reach semi-finals in Toronto. His rival will be Karen Khachanov.
Both players knew what it was like to win Canadian Open, with Zverev winning one of his first Masters 1,000 titles in 2017. And this victory means that he joins Novak Djokovic as the only two active players to reach 75th tour-level semi-final (Djokovic has 196), according to ATP Tour.
Now, Zverev wants to vindicate himself after a so so year and hearing frequent boos on the court (last night, an spectator was escorted out after shouting at him). The two domestic abuse allegations on him weighed a lot, so he took the opportunity to say that he wants to be remembered for his tennis, “for what I’ve done on the tennis court… also for the good things I do outside the tennis court as well.”
“There’s quite a lot of work that I do with my foundation, and with my family as well, which can be beneficial and helps people around the world. So I would much rather be known and remembered for that than the outbursts that I used to have, right?” he said after the match (via ATP Tour), referring to the foundation that supports children living with diabetes, a disease he also has.
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