Zverev Upsets Top Seed Goffin In Munich

Alexander Zverev continued to build on a career-best 2016 season by defeating top seed David Goffin 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the BMW Open by FWU AG on Friday. Zverev, currently ranked a career-best No. 49 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, secured the win in two hours and 22 minutes to move into his fourth ATP World Tour semi-finals.

“He’s been playing really well in the past months, making the semi-finals of two [ATP World Tour] Masters 1000 events, so it was nice to win,” Zverev said.

The German set the tone early in the match, landing 71 per cent of first serves and breaking Goffin twice en route to winning the opening set. The Belgian, who won the pair’s lone previous meeting at the Mons Challenger in 2014, survived seven aces in the second set and pushed the match to a decider. The 19 year old then showed his mettle, only losing three points on serve the rest of the way.

Standing between Zverev and his first ATP World Tour final is third seed Dominic Thiem, who saw off Ivan Dodig 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 12 minutes. Thiem fired eight aces and landed 65 per cent of first serves in the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. The 22 year old, No. 15 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is now tied with Novak Djokovic for most tour-level wins on the season (28-7). He is now 12-2 on clay in 2016.

“I’m really looking forward to [facing Thiem],” Zverev said. “We spend a lot of time off the court together. It will be the first of many [matches] for us.”

Philipp Kohlschreiber snapped a six-match losing streak against Juan Martin del Potro with a 6-4, 6-1 quarter-final win. The German saved both break points faced and broke the Argentine four times in the 80-minute encounter. His semi-final opponent will be fifth seed Fabio Fognini, who edged Lucky Loser Jozef Kovalik 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in two hours.

Colombian Duo Into Doubles Final

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah are into the Munich doubles final after defeating Austrians Julian Knowle and Alexander Peya 7-6(5), 6-3 on Friday. The second seeds fired 11 aces in the 82-minute win and await the winner of Oliver Marach/Fabrice Martin and Henri Kontinen/John Peers in the final.