Olympic champion Alexander Zverev is in the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells tennis masters tournament for the second time in his career.
The 26-year-old from Hamburg won his round of 16 match against Australian Alex de Minaur 5:7, 6:2, 6:3 after 2:47 hours. In the round of the last eight, Zverev will face Wimbledon winner Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard, number two in the world rankings, had no trouble winning 6:3, 6:3 against Hungary’s Fabian Maroszan. Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner from Italy defeated the American Ben Shelton 7:6 (7:4), 6:1.
Zverev is playing against Alcaraz for his first semi-final at the hard court tournament in California. His biggest success so far in Indian Wells was reaching the quarter-finals three years ago. His last title at a Masters also dates back to 2021, when Zverev won both the clay court tournament in Madrid and the hard court tournament in Cincinnati.
He also defied the conditions against de Minaur. “I can’t remember ever having a better match in the wind than today,” he said and self-critically noted: “When you’re a set and a break behind, you have to think about whether you want to continue playing or whether you’re in I had to leave the pitch for 20 minutes. I had to play differently on both sides and I did that well today.”
Defeat for Kerber
However, three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber missed out on making it to the women’s quarterfinals. In the mother duel, the 36-year-old lost to the Danish Caroline Wozniacki 4:6, 2:6. Kerber celebrated her comeback at the beginning of the year after the birth of her daughter.
Against Wozniacki, Kerber struggled with back problems in the second set and was unable to turn things around. “It went a little my way today. You could tell she was having problems. I just tried to stay focused,” said Wozniacki. Kerber could still be satisfied with the tournament in California. For the first time since May 2022, she managed three wins in a row.
In the men’s doubles competition, Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz can still hope for the title. The number seven seeded German doubles team won against the British-Dutch duo Lloyd Glasspool and Jean-Julien Rojer 6:3, 5:7, 10:8 and is now in the semi-finals.
