Zverev

Zverev, 25, also snuffed out Alcaraz's rousing comeback in this quarterfinal. Zverev, beaten by Alcaraz in the Madrid Open final ahead of Roland Garros, was the ...

Zverev missed a backhand of his own on his first match point, but he won the next two points to close out the match, finishing off the victory with a bold backhand return winner down the line that Alcaraz, one of the quickest men in tennis, could not come close to reaching. “At the end of the day, I knew I had to play my absolutely best tennis today from the start, and I’m happy I did that,” Zverev said. Alcaraz had one set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker and failed to convert it when he made an unforced error with his backhand into the top of the net.

Zverev will now go up against the winner of Tuesday night's far-more-anticipated, far-more-intriguing quarterfinal between defending champion Novak Djokovic and ...

Alcaraz, in contrast, was not at his highest level, accumulating 32 unforced errors over the first two sets alone, 17 more than Zverev in that span. Alcaraz entered the quarterfinals with a tour-leading four titles and 32-3 record this season, 20-1 on clay. PARIS — (AP) — A lot of folks were predicting that 19-year-old rising star Carlos Alcaraz would leave this French Open as the champion. Instead, it's Alexander Zverev who still has a shot at his first Grand Slam title. “I hope I can win it before he starts ... beating us all.” Theirs was the first showdown between two men with at least 20 Grand Slam titles (Nadal has 21; Djokovic 20), the first between two men with at least 1,000 match wins (Nadal has 1,055; Djokovic 1,005), the first between two men with at least 300 match wins at major tournaments (Djokovic has 327; Nadal 302).

Between the phenomenon of Carlos Alcaraz's teenage breakthrough, the attempts of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to tread deeper into tennis' history book and ...

He struck two nervous unforced errors and Alcaraz pounced, closing off the return game with uncompromising aggression and a crosscourt backhand winner. Experience in these big moments, of which Zverev possesses a huge amount despite being unable to take the final step, counts for much. In the second set Alcaraz produced plenty of his usual spectacular moments but he simply could not find his level. With an exquisite return game, he extended the match after ending a long exchange with a brilliant forehand passing shot, then landing another delicate drop shot. He soaked up the Spaniard’s inside-out forehand with his own excellent backhand, which remarkably did not concede a single unforced error for two and a half sets. But a player rises to No 3 in the rankings for a reason.

Alexander Zverev remains alive for his first Grand Slam title, while Carlos Alcaraz will have to wait for his next opportunity.

Alcaraz had won 14 straight matches, including capturing the title in Madrid where he became the first man to defeat Nadal and Djokovic in the same clay court event. He was seeking to become the youngest Roland Garros semifinalist since Nadal in 2005. In the tiebreak, Zverev earned his first match point at 7-6, but then hit a backhand into the net. I knew that I had to absolutely play my best tennis from the first point on and I did that. The loss snapped a 14-match winning streak for Alcaraz, who entered Paris as the second favorite to win the title behind world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. “It was obviously a fantastic match,” Zverev said.

By Sudipto Ganguly PARIS (Reuters) -German third seed Alexander Zverev capitalised on an error-filled performance from Carlos Alcaraz to tame the high...

“For me obviously when it is shady and much slower it is not perfect for me,” Zverev added. “He is going to win this tournament a lot of times not just once. “He kept coming back.