Tennis: Zverev reaches semifinals in Toronto

Toronto. Alexander Zverev reached the semifinals of the Toronto Masters despite several attempts by a spectator to disrupt his performance. The 28-year-old defeated Australian Alexei Popyrin 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 6-3 and can hope for his second tournament victory in 2025 after his triumph in Munich in April. "I can't really complain. It was pretty good," Zverev said after his victory.

A spectator repeatedly annoyed him with the score at 5-3 in the third set by shouting before his serves and was escorted out of the stadium by security to the applause of the crowd. After his victory, the top German tennis player waved "bye, bye" to the troublemaker.

In the semifinals, the number one seeded German will face Russian Karen Khachanov on Wednesday (local time) at the hard court tournament in Canada, which has a total prize pool of around 9.2 million US dollars (around 8 million euros).

In the first set, the world number three missed two set points in the tiebreak against the defending champion from Sydney, just four weeks after his first-round Wimbledon defeat. A net roller clinched the set in Popyrin's favor after 71 minutes. "I made one or two too many errors there. The last point was unfortunate, of course," said Zverev.

The Hamburg native was able to put aside his anger over the missed opportunities in the second set. With the first break of the match, Zverev was 3-0 up. But the German couldn't capitalize on his advantage. A weak service game without winning a point at 4-2 brought Popyrin back into the match. The Australian took advantage of Zverev's weak phase and equalized at 4-4. A quick response, however, secured a 6-4 set win after 47 minutes.

Zverev was able to take advantage of the tailwind in the decisive third set. The tournament favorite repeatedly put his opponent under pressure, forcing errors from the Australian. As in the previous set, Zverev broke his opponent's first service game and took a 2-0 lead.

The German dominated the match, especially from the baseline, leaving Popyrin in despair. Only the distracting spectator annoyed Zverev. After 2:42 hours, he ultimately won the quarterfinal match comfortably 6-3 in the third set.

RND/dpa