Zverev ends Nadal's pursuit of first Paris Masters title in semifinals

Alexander Zverev kept his indoor winning streak alive in the semifinals of the Paris Masters on Saturday, stunning Rafael Nadal in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, to win his 12th match in a row.

After the abbreviated clay-court season wrapped up at Roland Garros, Zverev went 8-0 to win back-to-back titles in Cologne, Germany a few weeks ago, and he’s 4-0 so far in Paris this week.

“I’m in the final of a Masters, so I’m quite happy about that,” Zverev told reporters in his post-match press conference. “And I’ve just beaten Rafa—that is never easy to do, I think the whole world would agree with me on that, and I think all the players would agree with me on that."

He’s now through to his seventh career Masters 1000 final, going 3-3 in his first six Masters 1000 finals—his three titles came at Rome and Canada in 2017 and most recently at Madrid in 2018.

After the two players held serve to start the match, Zverev struck first with a break at love for 2-1—the two then held from there until Zverev had the set. After trading breaks in the second set, Zverev snuck in one last break in the last game of the match to close it out after an hour and 39 minutes.

It was his second straight win over Nadal—the pair’s last meeting came in the round robin of the ATP Finals last November, which Zverev won, 6-2, 6-4. Nadal still leads the overall head-to-head, 5-2.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion was looking for his first Paris Masters title this year. He's now reached the quarterfinals or better all eight times he's played here, reaching one final in 2007, falling to David Nalbandian. He's scheduled to return to action at the ATP Finals in just over a week.

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The No. 7-ranked Zverev’s reward for his win over No. 2 Nadal is a final date with No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, who advanced to the final earlier in the day with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Milos Raonic.

Zverev leads Medvedev in their head-to-head, 5-1, though they’ve split their last two meetings: Medvedev won in the final of the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai last fall, 6-4, 6-1; and Zverev got revenge soon after with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win in the round robin stage of the 2019 ATP Finals.

“Obviously the two best players of the tournament are still left,” Zverev said. “I’m happy about it, I think he’s quite happy about it, and we’re both not going to give each other anything tomorrow.

“We’ll see who’s going to win.”

Zverev's win over Nadal was his fourth career win over a Top 2 player. He has two career wins over No. 1s (Novak Djokovic in the final of the 2018 ATP Finals and Nadal in the round robin of the 2019 ATP Finals) and now two wins over No. 2s (he beat a No. 2-ranked Djokovic in the final of Rome in 2017).

The German has been ranked as high as No. 3 himself.