Alexander\u00a0Zverev\u00a0may insist that he does not “particularly care” about being the runaway\u00a0favourite\u00a0to win a maiden Grand Slam title, but the second seed will know the pressure lies squarely on his shoulders in Friday’s French Open semi-finals.<\/p>\n
The German will face Czech youngster Jakub\u00a0Mensik\u00a0in the last four, with the winner of that match-up meeting either Flavio\u00a0Cobolli\u00a0or Matteo\u00a0Arnaldi\u00a0in the final.<\/p>\n
Here, AFP Sport takes a look at the two men’s semi-finals:<\/p>\n
Zverev\u00a0\u00a0v\u00a0Mensik<\/p>\n
Zverev\u00a0leads head-to-head 1-0<\/p>\n
— Following the shock early exits of\u00a0Jannik\u00a0Sinner and Novak Djokovic,\u00a0Zverev\u00a0finds himself the odds-on\u00a0favourite\u00a0to win Roland\u00a0Garros\u00a0and finally shake off the unwanted title of tennis’ nearly-man, after three painful runner-up finishes in Grand Slam finals.<\/p>\n
The 2020 Olympic champion has cruised into the last four, dropping just one set\u00a0en\u00a0route, and looks in menacing form after needing less than two-and-a-half hours to see off rising Spanish teenager Rafael\u00a0Jodar\u00a0in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
Despite being the oldest, highest-ranked and most-decorated player left in the tournament,\u00a0Zverev\u00a0has maintained that his sole focus is on his next matches, rather than any title talk.<\/p>\n
“As I said before, I don’t particularly care (about being the\u00a0favourite),” the 29-year-old told reporters.<\/p>\n
“I focus on next match, and I focus on the opponent as they cross the net, and that’s the only thing that I can control.”<\/p>\n
His next opponent,\u00a0Mensik, is a first-time major semi-finalist. But the 20-year-old has already known success in his short career, beating Djokovic in the final to claim last year’s Miami Open title.<\/p>\n
The 196cm tall Czech has done it the hard way to reach the last four, but his straight-sets win in the last eight against Brazilian sensation Joao Fonseca showed just why he is considered one of the most promising young talents on the tour.<\/p>\n
Zverev\u00a0won the only previous meeting between the two, besting\u00a0Mensik\u00a0in three sets on the clay in Madrid earlier this season.<\/p>\n
“The match with\u00a0Sascha\u00a0(Zverev) in Madrid, of course, it was a close one. It was best-of-three,”\u00a0Mensik\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
“Right now it’s a different situation… I would say bigger match, best-of-five. I’m excited for the challenge.”<\/p>\n
Cobolli\u00a0v\u00a0Arnaldi<\/p>\n
Head-to-head tied 1-1<\/p>\n
Ahead of the tournament, many would have expected to find an Italian in Sunday’s final.<\/p>\n
And they will. But rather than world number one Sinner, it will be 104th-ranked\u00a0Arnaldi\u00a0or 10th seed\u00a0Cobolli.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Court Philippe\u00a0Chatrier\u00a0after edging out Canadian fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime\u00a0for a career-first Grand Slam semi-final berth,\u00a0Cobolli\u00a0said he “felt like this is the chance of my life”.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old will meet\u00a0Arnaldi\u00a0with a maiden major final at stake, after the former world number 30 progressed past compatriot Matteo\u00a0Berrettini\u00a0who was forced to withdraw injured from their last-eight clash.<\/p>\n
The first all-Italian Grand Slam men’s semi-final in history will be a repeat of last year’s French Open second-round meeting, which\u00a0Cobolli\u00a0claimed in four sets.<\/p>\n
“For sure it will be another derby, but I think we have to be happy for Italian tennis,”\u00a0Cobolli\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
“Another Italian, apart from Sinner and Lorenzo (Musetti), are in the final this week. So we have to be happy, and we have to enjoy that match.”<\/p>\n
Arnaldi\u00a0has spent the largest time on court for a player\u00a0en\u00a0route to a Grand Slam semi-final but said he “can’t complain” after returning for injury to enjoy his best-ever major performance.<\/p>\n
“I have been playing a lot, but at the same time, I’m happy to be on court and to spend time on court, because I missed playing,” he said. “I for sure have some energy left for\u00a0the next matches.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alexander\u00a0Zverev\u00a0may insist that he does not “particularly care” about being the runaway\u00a0favourite\u00a0to win a maiden Grand Slam title, but the second seed will know the pressure lies squarely on his shoulders in Friday’s French Open semi-finals. The German will face Czech youngster Jakub\u00a0Mensik\u00a0in the last four, with the winner of that match-up meeting either Flavio\u00a0Cobolli\u00a0or …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4431,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions\/4431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}