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Fourth seed Alexander Zverev beat Luca Van Assche 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinal of the Hamburg European Open on Friday, July 28. The match lasted for around an hour and a half, as the 26-year-old German romped home quite easily.
Zverev will take on another Frenchman in the form of Arthur Fils in the semifinal on Saturday. While Fils registered an upset win over top seed Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, he should find it difficult to get past Zverev on the latter's home soil.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in Zverev's win against van Assche:
#1 Alexander Zverev hit his forehands well again
Alexander Zverev, who has hit his forehand really well in the tournament so far, repeated the same against Luca van Assche. The German kept hitting passes and dispatched short balls with his forehand to stun the Frenchman.
Zverev got off to a great start, breaking van Assche in the second game and then holding his serve to race to a 3-0 lead. He then maintained the lead for the remainder of the set to win it convincingly and thereby draw the first blood.
From that point onwards, it was always going to be difficult for Van Assche to come back into the match
#2 Luca Van Assche generated power off his backhand, but let an advantage slip
Luca Van Assche started the second set in a resounding manner, breaking Alexander Zverev early to lead 2-0. However, the German then broke back in the seventh game to reduce the deficit and subsequently held his serve to level the score at 4-4.
Zverev then broke the Frenchman once again to finish the match off. Van Assche committed a few costly mistakes to let an advantageous position go. He matched the World No. 19's backhand with his own but was not clinical enough to hold on to his lead.
The German put a lot of pressure on Van Assche's second serve, as the latter was able to win only 43% of the points on his second delivery in the match. Zverev, meanwhile managed 77% in that regard.
Zverec is yet to drop a set in the tournament and will start as the favorite against Fils in the semifinals.
