Zverev, despite the wind, puts an end to Marozsan’s dream week and reaches the semifinals of the Miami Masters 1000

Alexander Zverev made the top four Miami Masters 1000 for the second time in his career, beating the Hungarians 6-3 and 7-5 Fabian Marozsan57th in the table and one of the big surprises of the match, in an hour and 37 minutes, in a match in which he received a yellow card for the wind.

It was the second set, when he was about to serve with the score at 2-2 and 40-40. Sashaseeded fourth, chipped the ball waiting for a strong enough volley to pass, but when the clock controlling the time available for the serve reached zero, the umpire announced: “Time violation, warning to Mr. Zverev”.

The German rushed out to protest the sentence. “I’m waiting for the wind, what do you want me to do? My God!”, he stated. “Let’s not wait for the wind,” the referee replied. “How come?! I can’t serve when there’s a 50 mile an hour wind. And I waited two seconds,” the player continued, but that didn’t change the judge’s mind.

After holding serve and making it 3-2, he complained again at the change of court. “I could have done what all players do and thrown the ball to stop the clock, but I just waited,” he said.

Despite that moment of anger, Zverev did not lose concentration and, despite having to work a lot, he managed to defeat Marozsan, who went into the match confident after his defeat in the second round. Rune Holger (6th) and in the eighth a Alex De Minaur (9th).

The German, number five in the world, thus entered the top four in Miami for the second time, six years after the first. In 2018 he beat Pablo Carreno Busta and lost in the final to the American John Isner.

Only three players had to wait longer than him between the first and second semi-finals in this competition: Juan Martin del Potro (nine years, between 2009 and 2018), Thomas Muster (8; 1989 and 1997) e Patrick Rafter (7; 1994 and 2001).

Zverev will play his 17th Masters 1000 semifinal this Friday and his ninth on a hard court. He is the fourth most capped active player in that case, behind Novak Djokovic (76), Rafael Nadal (76) e Andy Murray (33).

His rival for that match will leave the duel that will be played, not before 8pm in Argentina, the Spaniard Carlos Alcarazthe favorite, and the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov11th seed.

“I’m happy to be back in these final stages of these tournaments, playing against the best in the world,” Zverev said. “I look forward to the challenge ahead.”

And he found the time to dedicate a few nice words to Marozsan, who after the period spent in Miami, will climb 19 steps and this Monday will appear in 38th place in the rankings, his best position.

“If he continues to play like this, he will increase very quickly. He always puts pressure on you… I think when all the best players feel like they are in control, feel like they are managing the game, that works a little bit. “They can do it. That’s why he has such a good Top 10 record (4-2). He is an incredible player,” he reflected. Sasha.