World No.4 Alexander Zverev became fourth time lucky as he made his way through to his maiden French Open final. On Friday, June 7, the German star defeated Casper Ruud 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 at Philippe-Chatrier in 2 hours and 35 minutes. Zverev lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas, Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively in the semi-final.
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But this time around, the 27-year-old Zverev had the rub of the green going his way. He also qualified for his second Grand Slam final after the US Open 2020, where he lost to Austria’s Dominic Thiem in a thrilling 5-setter. He will next be up against Carlos Alcaraz, who will also be playing his maiden final at Roland Garros after taking down World No.1 Jannik Sinner earlier in the day.
Alexander Zverev comes back from behind
Zverev struggled to find his feet in the opening set after going a double break down. But once he found his feet from the second set onwards, it became tough to stop the German. Zverev broke Ruud’s serve 5 times in the last 3 sets to show his dominance.
Ruud wasn’t on top of his health as he had a stomach bug and that affected his game to a large extent. Zverev hit 54 winners, 19 more than his opponent to make the difference in the match. Zverev also served brilliantly as he churned out 19 aces compared to Ruud’s 4. He also had a stupendous winning percentage of 86 from his first serves compared to his opponent’s tally of 69.
Zverev has had some outstanding matches against Alcaraz and leads the head-to-head count 5-4. In their previous meeting in the Indian Wells earlier this year, Alcaraz beat Zverev 6-3, 6-1. In their only meeting in the French Open back in 2022, Zverev won in four sets.
