Top-seeded Alexander Zverev, bouncing back after squandering two set points in the first set, rallied for a 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-3 win over defending champion Alexei Popyrin in the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open on Monday in Toronto.
The 28-year-old German advances to face 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia, who beat 26th-seeded Alex Michelsen of the United States 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the late match Monday night.
Zverev is one match victory away from his fourth final of the season. He won the title at Munich, Germany, and wound up as runner-up at the Australian Open and at Stuttgart, Germany.
Following a first set in which Zverev failed on two chances to claim the tiebreaker, he established his dominance in each of the final two sets by jumping out to 3-0 leads.
Popyrin, an Australian who was seeded 18th, managed to pull level in the second set before Zverev broke again in the last game. The third set featured just the lone service break.
“I had to tell myself, even though I lost the first set, I thought we were both playing actually quite well,” Zverev said.
“I did one or two mistakes in the end (of the tiebreaker), and I was very unlucky with the net cord on set point. But all in all, I thought it was a high level, and if I continue playing that way, I’m going to get my chances — and that’s what I did.”
Popyrin finished with a slight edge in winners, 30-28, but that was more than offset by his 45 unforced errors. Zverev gave away only 30 points.
Zverev is headed to an ATP 1000 semifinal for the first time this year. He has seven career ATP 1000 titles, two of them coming last year in Rome and Paris.
In the late match, Michelsen had two set points at 4-5 in the third set, but Khachanov managed to hold serve. Michelsen led 3-2 in the tiebreaker before the Russian reeled off the final five points.
Khachanov recorded his lone career ATP 1000 title in 2018 at Paris. He is through to the Canadian semifinals for the third time.
Zverev owns a 5-2 head-to-head edge against Khachanov, having won each of their past three meetings, all outdoors on hard courts. Their most notable matchup occurred in the gold-medal contest of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when Zverev won 6-3, 6-1.
–Field Level Media
