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PARIS – Top seed Rafael Nadal for his first Paris Masters title was halted on Saturday when the Spaniard was beaten 6-4 7-5 in the semifinals by German fourth seed Alexander Zverev.
Nadal, who reached the final at Bercy in 2007, was only briefly in contention when he gave up his service three times.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion bounced back after falling 4-2 behind in the second set, but it was a short comeback when 23-year-old Zverev stole his serve again in the 11th game.
He then served it up, prevailing on his second match point when Nadal’s right hand swerved.
Zverev will look to claim his fourth Masters title against Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev, who qualified with a resounding 6-4 7-6 (4) victory against Canadian Milos Raonic.
“I feel good. Look, I’m in the final of a Masters, so I’m pretty happy about that. And I just beat Rafa,” Zverev said.
“So that is never easy to do. I think the whole world will agree with me on that, all the players will agree with me on that. It will be a final against Daniil. Obviously, there are still two best players in the tournament.
Nadal said he was satisfied with his overall performance in Paris, although he regretted his tactical game plan.
“I did things well. I think I came back better than the other days, but at first it was impossible. I think I understood that I had to come back too late, because I couldn’t, he was serving bombs and hitting the right places all the time, ”he said.
“So I decided to go about eight meters behind the baseline later in the game and I think it worked better for me.”
Medvedev hit 31 winners by 12 unforced errors in a subdued atmosphere at the Bercy stadium, where the tournament is played without spectators amid government restrictions to contain the increase in COVID-19 cases in France.
The 24-year-old, who arrived in Paris after losing five of his previous eight matches, broke the 3-2 when Raonic made another unforced forehand error.
Both remained strong on serve and Medvedev, who saved six of seven break points throughout, pocketed the first set with a timely serve and volley at his first opportunity.
Raonic lost his serve at 11th game of the second set, but broke back to force a tiebreaker, in which he was out of place, with Medvedev smashing it out to reach his fourth Masters final.
“When you play Milos, you are always at risk because (if) once he breaks you, it’s very difficult to break him,” Medvedev said.
“It was unstable here and there, but I’m very happy to make it to the final.” – Reuters
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