French Open 2018: Alexander Zverev battles to first Grand Slam quarter-final where Dominic Thiem awaits

Winning his third successive five-set match, Zverev reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final by beating Russia’s Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3

Alexander Zverev celebrates his win over Karen Khachanov (Getty Images)

Alexander Zverev’s powers of endurance and ability to perform at the highest level have been regularly questioned over the last year or two, but the 21-year-old German continued to respond in the best possible fashion here at the French Open on Sunday.

Winning his third successive five-set match, Zverev reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final by beating Russia’s Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. The world No 3, who had to save a match point against Damir Dzumhur in the previous round, has won each of his last three matches after being down by two sets to one.

Zverev’s durability had been called into question after he went out of three of the last five Grand Slam tournaments in five-set matches, to Rafael Nadal at last year’s Australian Open, to Milos Raonic at Wimbledon last summer and to Hyeon Chung in Melbourne this year.

On this occasion Khachanov looked the more likely winner for much of the first three sets before Zverev came good. Having failed to beat a top 50 player at any Grand Slam tournament before last week, Zverev has now beaten two in the space of three days. Dzumhur is the world No 29 and Khachanov the world No 38.

“I started playing much better in the fourth and fifth sets,” Zverev said. “At the beginning of the fourth I thought: ‘OK, I can turn this match around.’ Especially when I saved a few break points, it kind of went my way a little bit and gave me confidence. He’s a very fit player, so I don’t think it’s that easy to make him tired.”

There were times when Zverev tried to encourage the crowd to become more involved. “It was about me trying to win and me trying to get my energy going and finding a way,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve got to be emotional. Sometimes you’ve got to be quiet. Sometimes you’ve got to get the crowd involved. Sometimes you don’t. Today I had to get myself going and the crowd a little bit.”

Zverev said he was not concerned by mental or physical fatigue. “Mental, definitely not, because I’m in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam. If you’re mentally fatigued, then something is wrong with you. Physically, obviously it’s not easy to play back-to-back-to-back five-set matches, but I will manage it somehow. I will do everything I can to recover. I will make sure to be ready in two days’ time.”

He added: “I’m very happy about being in the quarter-finals here by going the hard way, going the long distance every single time and showing myself, showing everybody that I can play for as long as I need to.”

A view of the match on court Suzanne Lenglen (Getty Images)

Zverev will meet Dominic Thiem in a quarter-final between two of the game’s best young players. The German and the Austrian have won more tour-level matches this year than any other players.

While Zverev was recording his 34thvictory of the year Thiem was en route to his 33rd. The 24-year-old had lost both his previous encounters with Kei Nishikori but beat him 6-2, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the last four here for the third year in a row.

Clay brings the best out of Thiem, who is the only man to have beaten Nadal on the surface this year. The world No 7 has won clay-court titles this year in Buenos Aires and Lyon and also reached the final in Madrid, where he lost to Zverev. Thiem has won four of his six career meetings with Zverev.

“He’s an amazing player,” Thiem said when asked about Zverev. “He’s probably the third best player in the world now after Rafa and Roger [Federer], so it’s going to be an amazing challenge for me.”

The Austrian does not expect Zverev to tire. “He’s super-fit,” Thiem said. “He’s playing an amazing year this year, match after match. I don’t expect him to be tired.I really like best-of-five, whoever it’s against, whether it’s Sascha or anybody else.”

Thiem said he was happy with every aspect of his own game. “There is no point where I would say that it’s not working,” he said. “I’m moving well, feeling physically very good. My ground strokes are great. I’ve been serving great, especially today. I just tried to keep that level which I’m playing at now.

Novak Djokovic, continuing to make progress in his comeback following elbow surgery, reached his 13th quarter-final at Roland Garros – a record for the open era, which Nadal can equal on Monday – by beating Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

The first three games of the match, which all eventually went with serve, took 30 minutes, but things speeded up after Djokovic took control by breaking Verdasco to go 4-2 up. The Spaniard recovered from an early break in the second set to level at 3-3, but dropped his serve again immediately afterwards and then had treatment for a blister on his left foot when trailing 5-4.

Djokovic promptly served out for the second set and again drew first blood in the third by breaking in the opening game. The former world No 1 broke again in the fifth game and served out for victory after two hours and 25 minutes.

“I knew it would be a very difficult match because Fernando plays with a lot of confidence,” Djokovic said afterwards. “He had beaten [Grigor] Dimitrov in the last round and he’s a clay-court specialist. I had to stay very focused and keep up my intensity throughout.”

Djokovic will now play Marco Cecchinato, who as the world No 72 is the lowest ranked man to have reached the quarter-finals here for 10 years. Cecchinato, who had never won a Grand Slam match before he arrived here, sprang a surprise when he beat David Goffin 7-5, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.

The 25-year-old Italian won his first tour-level title in Budapest in the build-up to Roland Garros, having entered the main draw as a lucky loser. If Fabio Fognini beats Marin Cilic on Monday Italy will have two players in the last 16 here for the first time since 1976.