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De Minaur Knocks Out Zverev in Vienna, Sets Up Alcaraz Final

Nikhil RaoPublished 18m ago2 min readBased on 8 sources
De Minaur Knocks Out Zverev in Vienna, Sets Up Alcaraz Final
Photo by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0

Alex de Minaur beat Alexander Zverev 6-4 1-6 7-6 (7-4) in the Vienna Open semi-final on Saturday, and will now play Carlos Alcaraz in the final on Sunday.

Zverev was the top seed in Vienna. A seed is a player ranked high enough to be placed where he is unlikely to meet the strongest rivals early. Zverev was also due to take over the men's world number one ranking from Jannik Sinner on Monday, according to BBC Sport. That top spot now looks set to stay with Zverev, but only if he has a good week in the rankings. Losing this semi-final does not change that arithmetic on its own.

De Minaur, 27, was seeded fifth. He took the first set 6-4, then lost the second 6-1 as Zverev found his rhythm. The match went to a deciding third set, which ended in a tiebreak. A tiebreak is a short, sudden-death game played when a set reaches 6-6, and the first player to seven points with a two-point lead wins it.

De Minaur made the tiebreak his own. He moved 3-0 ahead early, and kept his nerve to close it out 7-4. ATP Tour reported the match as a close contest throughout, and the official recorded time was 2 hours, 30 minutes and 59 seconds.

De Minaur had already beaten Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the quarter-finals. Now he meets Alcaraz, who beat Daniil Medvedev 6-4 7-6 (7-2) in the other semi-final. Alcaraz's second set went to a tiebreak too, and he won that one 7-2.

Alcaraz arrives with a strong record at this level of event. The Vienna tournament, officially called the Erste Bank Open, is an ATP 500 event. That is one of the tour's mid-level tournaments, a tier below the Masters 1000 series. Alcaraz has now extended his unbeaten run at ATP 500 events to 25 matches, according to BBC Sport.

For De Minaur, the final is a chance to win a title at a higher level than most of his recent results. For Alcaraz, it is another chance to add to a run that has been hard to stop. Both men will walk out on Sunday knowing the winner takes the trophy, and the ranking points that come with it.

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