Two-Level Reversal from 6-2 to 1-6! World No. 2 Sweeps 7-0 in Tiebreak, First Men's Singles Finalist at Australian Open Decided!
Beijing Time January 21st, 2025, the first men's singles semifinalist of the Australian Open has been decided. Second seed Zverev fought through four sets with a big score of 3-1 to eliminate American veteran Tommy Paul. This is his third time advancing to the Australian Open men's singles semifinals in two consecutive seasons and his ninth time overall in Grand Slam men's singles semifinals. Next, Zverev's semifinal opponent will be either Alcaraz or Djokovic.
Although Zverev is ranked second in the world, just behind world number one Sinner, he has a record of 0 wins and 2 losses against Tommy Paul, which puts him at an absolute disadvantage. That is to say, before this Australian Open men's singles semifinal, Zverev had never defeated today's opponent Tommy Paul since turning professional.
In the first two sets, the 12th seed Tommy Paul lost a good opportunity. He was reversed by Zverev after taking the lead in breaking serve. Zverev saved set points at the end of both sets and broke Tommy Paul's serve to win the set, winning two tiebreaks with a score of 7-6, 7-1 in the first set tiebreak, and even more so with a 7-0 in the second set tiebreak!
In the third set, it was still Tommy Paul who broke Zverev's serve first, and this time Tommy Paul finally did not continue to waste opportunities. He took the second break in the seventh game to expand the lead to 5-2, then won the eighth game in a row to win the set 6-2.
Unexpectedly, Tommy Paul, who had just strongly recovered a set, suddenly lost power in the fourth set. After losing his serve continuously, Tommy Paul's situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse, and Zverev won five games in a row in the fourth set to take a commanding lead of 5-0!
However, Tommy Paul did not give up. In the sixth game, he saved a break point, which was also a match point, and managed to hold his first serve in the fourth set, bringing the score to 1-5. In the next Zverev's serve-to-win game, Tommy Paul saved another match point and even forced out two break points, but Tommy Paul failed to convert the break points. Zverev used an ace to cash in on the third match point of the game, eventually winning the fourth set 6-1 and defeating Tommy Paul 3-1 to advance to the Australian Open men's singles semifinals. He also finally achieved his first victory over Tommy Paul in his career!
From 6-2 in the third set to 1-6 in the fourth set, the situation on the court changed dramatically in two levels, and Tommy Paul fought to the end, but ultimately fell. Looking at the whole game, Tommy Paul's loss mainly stemmed from the first two sets, where he continuously missed opportunities to win the set and lost points, losing two tiebreaks and being reversed twice, which was too damaging!