That, then is us. At the end of a day that feels like it began a week ago, we’ve seen two shocks in the women’s quarters, Jasmine Paolini and Mirra Andreeva seeing off Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka respectively. In the men’s, on the other hand, what was expected to happen happened, Alexander Zverev beating a game Alex de Minaur. Do join us again tomorrow for the women’s semis, but in the meantime, thanks for your company and peace out.
Updated
Zverev is asked about how hard he’s worked to get to this point and says he’s always asked how he recovers. “You don’t recover,” he says, “you recover in the off-season, and do the work so that tennis is easy”. His mindset is that to be the best player you have to outwork everyone else and he’s been doing it for many years; if you do, somehow, playing five sets “isn’t that difficult”.
Asked in particular about the long point in the second-set tiebreak, he says he’s got a coach, his dad, who doesn’t care how he feels, always sending him chasing after things. He notes that he’s both tall and powerful – “I wish I would be more aggressive sometimes” – but if he’s winning he’s happy.
Tennis has given him everything, he says. “The life that I have, my first love, it’s given me heartbreaks, it’s given me the most joyful moments, the most painful moments. If i can give back to the sport in any way, if i can give back to the people watching, have a little bit of joy on my face, I’m happy about that. and i hope i can continue doing that, for as long as I do I’ll keep playing, and that’s the most important thing.”
