Alexander Zverev stretched two impressive streaks on Friday at the Mutua Madrid Open, but let's start with the most important one: The 21-year-old German won his seventh consecutive match, beating American John Isner 6-4, 7-5 to reach his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final of the season (Miami, Monte-Carlo).
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Zverev exacted revenge on Isner, who had won their last FedEx ATP Head2Head matchup in the Miami Open presented by Itau final, Isner's maiden Masters 1000 title. But the 6'6” German was nearly flawless as the two finished a busy day on Caja Magica.
“Yeah I returned much better to start with, which is very important against John,” Zverev said. “I found I was very happy with how I played from the baseline, returning serving, so all in all it was a good performance."
The second seed didn't face a break point – his third consecutive match in which he didn't drop his serve – and he captured 100 per cent of his second-serve points (16/16) against Isner, who was playing in his third Madrid quarter-final (0-3). Zverev broke just in time as well – in the seventh game of the first set and in the 11th game of the second.
"I tried to stand very far back and get the return deep and try to play out the point," Zverev said. "That’s what I did and luckily I broke John two times."
The two-time Masters 1000 champion (2017 Rome, Montreal) entered Madrid fresh off his title run at the BMW Open by FWU in Munich. He will next meet #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who advanced to his second Masters 1000 semi-final by beating British No. 1 Kyle Edmund 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-4. Zverev beat Shapovalov in the Montreal semi-finals last year, their only FedEx ATP Head2Head matchup.
"Yeah [he's playing] great tennis, obviously it’s going to be a very tough match but I’m ready for it," Zverev said. "I feel pretty good and hopefully it’ll be another entertaining match like it was in Montreal."