Alexander Zverev secured a memorable victory on Friday as he saved two match points to oust rival Daniil Medvedev and keep his title defense hopes alive at the Rolex Paris Masters.
Zverev’s 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) victory ends his five-match skid against Medvedev and earns him a semi-final against second seed Jannik Sinner, a rematch of last week’s Vienna final won by the Italian. Meanwhile, Medvedev’s chances of a Nitto ATP Finals bid are gone.
“What I am most happy about is the saved match points, the way I stayed brave and won the match at the important moments,” Zverev said in his on-court interview.
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From the start, a dialed-in Medvedev stuck to his signature deep return position, which Zverev tried to counter early with serve-and-volleys or using drop shots. Zverev, who fell in the eighth game and briefly held his left hamstring, changed his strategy to rely more on his firepower. He upped the ante and started testing Medvedev from the baseline.
“In the beginning I felt like I played well, but tactically I played very stupidly,” Zverev said. “I felt my shots, I felt like I could turn the game around because I felt really good with my shots, but again, I played very stupidly. I changed a few things in my tactics and broke back. He helped me with a break. [at 1-0 in the second set].”
With two match points on serve at 4-5 in the decider, Zverev kept his cool even when faced with a nervous sit above his head which he put away. He would later miss a similar shot at 5/3 in the tie-break.
In the same match he saved match point twice, the 28-year-old winning a crucial Deuce point with a 27-shot rally that ended with a net cord winner. Ultimately, Zverev sealed the victory in a back-and-forth tie-break and was on the court after the two-hour and thirty-minute victory.
Pure power?@AlexZverev fight back from a set down against Medvedev to set up a semi-final against Sinner?@RolexPMasters | #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/b2yptYboPv
— ATP tour (@atptour) October 31, 2025
Zverev is now 8-14 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Medvedev and will next look to break his 4-4 tie with Sinner.
“Daniil is a bit of my kryptonite, I don’t like playing with him,” Zverev said, laughing. “He is someone who has had my number for a few years. I am certainly very happy with the victory. We played a fantastic match against Jannik last Sunday. I am happy to be on court with him again. Hopefully we will share another great match.”
Zverev made nine backhand unforced errors for the match, compared to Medvedev’s 23. But Medvedev retained the advantage on the forehand side, smashing 19 winners to 12 unforced errors. Zverev hit 14 forehand winners and 21 unforced errors.
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