PARIS (AFP) – Alexander Zverev made an emotional return to the French Open semifinals on Wednesday, one year after a horror ankle injury sent his career into a tailspin, as Iga Swiatek set up a last-four clash with Brazilian trailblazer Beatriz Haddad Maia.
German world No. 27 Zverev claimed a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina and will face Casper Ruud, the 2022 runner-up, for a place in Sunday’s final.
It will be Zverev’s sixth Grand Slam semi-final and will be played on the same Philippe Chatrier Court where he suffered torn ankle ligaments against Rafael Nadal 12 months ago.
Ranked at three in the world at the time, the sobbing, screaming Zverev was taken off court in a wheelchair and was out of action until January this year.
On Wednesday, Olympic champion and 2020 US Open runner-up Zverev broke in the seventh game of the first set and saved two break points in the eighth before going on to pocket the opener.
Etcheverry, ranked 49 and in the quarter-final at the majors for the first time, levelled the tie and was quickly 2-0 up in the third set.
But Zverev reeled off five games in a row before clinching the third set and then grabbed the key break to edge ahead 4-3 in the fourth.
World number one and defending champion Swiatek, chasing a third title at Roland Garros, brushed aside 19-year-old Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-2 in a rematch of last year’s final.
Swiatek improved her record in Paris to 26-2 after beating the American for the seventh time in as many meetings.
The 22-year-old from Poland is chasing a third French Open crown and attempting to become the first woman to successfully defend the title in Paris since Justine Henin in 2007.
On losing seven out of seven to the Pole, Gauff admitted: “It sucks”.
Haddad Maia, the world number 14, defeated seventh-ranked Ons Jabeur 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 to become the first Brazilian woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since seven-time major winner Maria Bueno at the 1968 US Open.
