Novak Djokovic beat Alexander Zverev in the French Open quarterfinals for more than two and a half hours. This is the fourth group, led by Djokovic, but Zverev has a breakthrough point and has a chance to return to the game.
They had a 41-stroke exchange, the longest off-roader and breeze on Wednesday night, and Djokovic stood out and beat the forehand winner. Afterwards, he stayed in place, raised his hips with his hand and scanned thousands of court Philippe-Chatrier audiences to stand-up applause.
Djokovic may be 38 now. He may have played one-on-three games this season and is ranked sixth in the rankings. What hasn't changed is Djokovic's determination or his best ability in the big stage - now he's a record two-game victory for the 25th Grand Slam title.
Djokovic is too much for the third seed Zverev, a decade-old young man who won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 last year in the runner-up of Roland-Garros to compete in the semi-finals against top-seeded Jannik Sinner.
Earlier Wednesday, Sinner continued running in brackets by rejecting Alexander Bublik 6-1, 7-5, 6-0. Not only has Sinner not dropped a set so far, he has taken only 36 games in total in five games.
So Friday will have a tempting showdown between players, and many consider the top players in tennis history, Djokovic and the most important player in the current men's game, the sinner. Djokovic and Sinner tied 4-4 in their head-to-head series, but Sinner won the final three games.
No one is ranked No. 1 in the rankings than Djokovic. No one won more major titles, or the total number after he became the second-largest man in Paris exceeded his overall score and surpassed his overall score in the finals.
Sinner, 23, is a three-time Grand Slam champion. These include last year’s U.S. Open and this year’s Australian Open, so his streak in the Grand Slam is now played in 19 games. He also won the last 26 sets in these events.
"He played very quickly. He was smart," Bubbik said. “He is in another dimension in all aspects of the game.”