‘I hope this is the first of many,’ says Alexander Zverev after breaking Grand Slam barrier

Australian Open
Alexander Zverev celebrates

Alexander Zverev can call himself a Grand Slam semi-finalist after he overcame a nightmare start to beat Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-final of the Australian Open.

It has been quite a transformation for Zverev the past fortnight as it looked like he carried his woes from 2019 over to this year after starting with three losses at the ATP Cup.

However, the seventh seed has turned things around at Melbourne Park as he won his first four matches without dropping a set and followed it up with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over three-time Grand Slam winner Wawrinka to reach a major semi-final for the first time in his career.

2014 Australian Open champion Wawrinka was all over Zverev in the opening set as he raced into a 5-0 lead with two breaks of serve and took the set after only 24 minutes.

But the German shook off the first-set disaster and finally got a foothold in the match with a break in game eight before serving it out to level it at one set each.

The third set started with both players dropping their serves, but Zverev got another break in game five to set up a two-set to one lead.

With Wawrinka running out of steam, the 22-year-old dominated the fourth set as he broke twice.

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“It feels awesome. I don’t know what to say. I’ve done well at times. I’ve won [ATP] Masters, I’ve won the World Tour Finals, but I never could break that barrier in a Grand Slam so I am happy to be in the semi-finals,” he said.

“Stan played a great match, great tournament beating Daniil Medvedev in the last match in five sets.

“I honestly don’t know what to say. Thank you very much to everybody who is supporting. You guys cannot imagine what this means to me and I hope this is the first of many.”

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Alexander Zverev Stan Wawrinka

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