French Open quarter-finals: Zverev v De Minaur after Andreeva stuns Sabalenka – live | French Open 2024

Zverev 6-4 3-4 De Minaur* Whaddaya know, when Zverev makes another mistake for 30-15, we learn that he has 27 unforced errors to De Minaur’s 23; I stand corrected, though perhaps the Aussie is making them in long rallies so they stand out. Either way, he’s playing better now, looking to be more aggressive and get points over quicker; he holds easily and will now look to get after the Zverev serve.

*Zverev 6-4 3-3 De Minaur I’m not totally sure what De Minaur’s gameplan is here; to my untrained eye at least, there’s nothing he’s doing loads of apart from ending long rallies with unforced errors. He makes 0-15 though … only to face 30-15 after two volleys are too good. But when a net-cord takes a Zverev backhand wide, he’s a sniff at 30-all, and superior slicing raises break-back point … then a double converts it! Just when it looked like the direction of travel was certain, a twist!

Zverev 6-4 3-2 De Minaur* A strange rally to bring, Zverev assuming a ball’s going wide only for it to catch the line. He rustles up a swift response but De Minaur cleans up at the net, only to find himself with no response when a backhand hurtles past him down the line for 15-all. And when he doesn’t do enough with an overhead, you know he’s going to lose the point because that’s how this match is going; he’ll be relieved when, in a rally he was losing, when Zverev looks for his winner, he drops wide. You sense, though, that a break is coming, and shonuff a double offers the opportunity, then a surprisingly high bounce secures it, and from that same end; De Minaur is in all sorts.

*Zverev 6-4 2-2 De Minaur Zverev catches the top of the net to cede 0-15, then a fine backhand cross alters the flow of the next rally and suddenly De Minaur has 0-30. Normal service is soon resumed, though, another baseline exchange ended via error for 30-all, then an excellent chop behind a less than excellent approach kisses the line to make 40-30 and from there, the game is secured.

Zverev 6-4 1-2 De Minaur* A hooked forehand winner earns Zverev 15-all, but he then nets a forehand when nicely positioned, remonstrating with his coach whose fault it is. This match is moving now, De Minaur quickly closing out, and this now feels more like the kind of match he needs: quick, with the set decided by a point here or there, not full of sapping rallies with accentuate the power differential between the two.

*Zverev 6-4 1-1 De Minaur Again, a long rally ends when De Minaur errs, then another when Zverev dictates; the Aussie is starting to lose patience with himself luzzing ball into net following his next unforced, and another love hold follows.

Zverev 6-4 0-1 De Minaur* Just what De Minaur needs, a love hold. I fear for him because generally speaking, underdogs need to win from the front. But if he can find a way of sneaking this set, he’s in business.

*Zverev 6-4 De Minaur A kicking second serve forces a long return, but a dematerialised overhead, set up by a good, early backhand, brings us to 15-all. Then, just as 30-15 looks guaranteed, Zverev assumed a drop isn’t coming back and when it does, can’t adjust to play it. Another long rally follows, D-Min doing all he can to stick in it … until he errs, and that appears to be a problem: he’s insufficiently metronomic to lengthen points. A body-serve is then returned long, the set secured by violent backhand cross-court and appearing to tell us what we already knew: De Minaur is good and much better than he was, but he doesn’t have a route to victory in this match-up.

Zverev 5-4 De Minaur* A service-winner followed by a wide backhand bring us to 15-all, Zverev’s weight of shot inciting errors. But two fractionally long groundstrokes make 40-15, and from there, De Minaur forces him to serve out the set.

*Zverev 5-3 De Minaur Consecutive errors from Zverev cede 0-30 without the wind intervening, but three poor shots from De Minaur hand over game-point, and an ace down the T does the rest.

Zverev 4-3 De Minaur* It feels like De Minaur is already doing all he can while Zverev has gears, and after an error cedes 0-15, he stays patient in the next two rallies to await the error, earning 0-40 and three break points. The firsrt disappears with a makeable forehand sent wide, but a double means he doesn’t have to do anything else, and it’s beginning to look like serving into the wind is a problem, all three breaks coming from the end to umpire’s left.

*Zverev 3-3 De Minaur I said earlier that Zverev has improved a lot since returning from injury and his net-play is a big part of that; he’s perfectly positioned to put away a volley for 15-0. And though he makes hard work of securing the hold, a lovely volley followed by a double making the game close, he gets it done to 30.

Zverev 2-3 De Minaur* I didn’t expect Zverev to get broken back like that, but Tiger Tim agrees with our early assessment: weight of shot is likely to prove definitive here. At 15-all, De Minaur finds himself caught at the net, doing well to block back two attempted passes … but the third, the hardest shot of the lot, is too good. No matter: an ace then a Zverev mishit secure the hold.

*Zverev 2-2 De Minaur Anyone else bothered by who De Minaur resembles? Well I’m here to tell you it’s Thom Yorke. Anyroad, two terrific volleys give De Minaur 0-30 but Zverev quickly levels, a lovely backhand slice doing the job … but he misses off the same flank to end another long rally, and here comes break-back point. A big serve quickly extinguishes it but another opportunity soon follows, and when Zverev’s approach doesn’t do enough, a glorious lob levels us back up.

Zverev 2-1 De Minaur* A cleverly-paced forehand into the corner, hit not too hard but hard enough, makes 0-15, then a 14-shot exchange ends with De Minaur going long for 15-30. And when he sits a ball up – or a ball holds up in the breeze – Zverev punishes him with a winner into the corner, before taking the first break point when Demon nets. That break looked like what we expected the match to look like, and though we’ll see how Zverev fares when serving into the wind, his extra power makes him more likely to push through.

*Zverev 1-1 De Minaur I should say, De Minaur’s new superfan mate Paul is in his box – oh man that’s wholesome – and he’ll be buzzing to see his man end a long rally with a delicious backhand drop for 0-30. But when he comes in to end the next rally, he nets – even at this early stage that could be a missed opportunity – less so when Zverev nets. He’s not got going yet and must now save two break points; the first disappears by way of serve out wide that De Minaur can’t return, the second by way of serve down the middle, same result. And from there, he quickly closes out.

Zverev 0-1 De Minaur* (*denotes server) Zverev nails one return on to the tootsies but it’s 40-0 by then, and his next effort is shanked wide. Good start for the Demon.

Righto, we’re good to go. De Minaur to serve, a semi-final against Casper Ruud the prize and … play.

Our players are with us and knocking up. Again, Chatrier is far from full, which makes a person question the wisdom of these nighttime sessions.

In the last two rounds, Zverev’s had to play five-setters, which may tell us that he’s not at his best, or may tell us that he’s in phenomenal shape and playing well enough to find a way past inferior players at their best. There was a time when Andy Murray would lose if, say, he bumped into Fernando Verdasco on a good day, and when that stopped happening, you knew he was ready to win a Slam. Perhaps that’s where Zverev now is.

Zverev is one of those players I thought might never win a Slam, because I thought by the time Djokovic and Nadal were ready to let him, Sinner and Alcaraz would be shutting him out. But he’s improved a lot since returning from injury and, utterly convinced by his own magnificence, he isn’t one of those doubting his ability to do it until he’s done it.

After beating Medvedev, De Minaur shouted, jokingly, that he’s a clay-court specialist and loves it in Paris. But actually, I wonder if this is the best surface for his game, given his speed allows him to catch up with almost everything, whereas on grass and hards, the bigger guys can blow him away.

Seventeen!

It almost feels like any title won in his absence needs an asterisk, but it might also be that, finally, he’s on the way down having started losing matches he shouldn’t.

So how’s this one going to go? Well, on the face of things, that looks clear: Zverev will win because De Minaur – however much improved – has no weight of shot to stop him doing what he wants. But these are thoughts which I ‘d have disbursed earlier had I been on Sabalenka-Andreeva, so I’m feeling warier than I might’ve been; maybe the speed of Demon’s scurrying allows him to target Zverev’s forehand, and maybe he extends points to elicit errors, but really I’m reaching.

Merci Katy et bon soir mes amis. What a day it’s been – and look at tonight!

And that’s not it for today. We’ve still got Alexander Zverev v Alex de Minaur to come, from around 7.15pm BST/8.15pm Paris time. I’m signing off now, but do stay with us, because Daniel will be here shortly to take you through the last men’s quarter-final. Bye!

Andreeva is the youngest grand slam semi-finalist since Martina Hingis at the 1997 US Open. Which is kind of appropriate given she’s been compared to Hingis in terms of her style of play. The 17-year-old showed maturity beyond her years to see the match out against Sabalenka and not be distracted by her ailing opponent. We still don’t know what the issue was with Sabalenka, we’ll have to wait for her press conference to find out. Hugely disappointing for her – this defeat ends her run of six consecutive grand slam semi-finals and means she will lose her world No 2 ranking to Coco Gauff next week – and it leaves the winner of tomorrow’s Iga Swiatek v Gauff semi-final as the huge favourite for the title.

Women’s semi-final line-up

Andreeva is talking to Mats Wilander on court:

I tried to not focus on the score, on the second match point I was trying to imagine I was saving a break point. I didn’t expect the crowd to cheer for me today, so thank you. [Conchita Martinez, her coach] is giving me great support. Having her by my side is an amazing advantage for me.

I played Paolini in Madrid [Andreeva won]. It was really tough, she moves really fast, she goes for it. I will try to play the same level as today with the same cold head and we’ll see what will happen.

Andreeva shocks Sabalenka 6-7, 6-4, 6-4!

Andreeva 6-7, 6-4, 5-4 Sabalenka*

Perfect start for Sabalenka with an ace down the T, followed by a deep forehand strike to Andreeva’s left. 30-0. She then targets the other side, but her footwork is a bit awry, and the ball skids wide. 30-15. Another unforced error and it’s 30-all. A crunch point this. Andreeva is two points from the biggest win of her life. And Sabalenka leaves absolutely no margin for error with a backhand down the line, and it pays off! 40-30…

Andreeva 6-7, 6-4, 5-4 Sabalenka*

Andreeva is rolling through this game. 15-0, 30-0, 40-0. A brief blip for 40-15 but no bother, the Russian takes the next point and the pressure is now very much on Sabalenka, who must hold serve to stay in this quarter-final…

Andreeva* 6-7, 6-4, 4-4 Sabalenka

Slightly distracted by watching that video, I miss most of Sabalenka’s service game. But she holds to 30, finishing with a flourish as she half volleys from the back of the court and pulls off the winner! Incroyable!