French OpenAlexander Zverev advances to 5th Roland Garros quarters after convincing win vs Grigor Dimitrov

By Sabyasachi ChowdhuryNo.22 Alexander Zverev advanced to the French Open 2023 men’s singles quarterfinals after beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 on Monday, June 5 at Court Philippe-Chatrier in two hours and 17 minutes.

It also happened to be the fifth time that Zverev made his way through to the Roland Garros quarters or beyond. Back in 2021 and 2022, the 26-year-old German made his way through to the semis in the clay-court tournament.

Zverev was dominant in the first set, after which Dimitrov earned a break early in the second set to put his opponent under pressure. However, Zverev managed to weather the storm and win the second set as well.

Zverev was leading 3-0 in the third set when Dimitrov held his serve to open his account. Thereafter, he broke Zverev’s serve to make it 3-2. Dimitrov did not give up and drew level in the set.

But Zverev earned a crucial break to make it 5-3 after which he served the match out. Zverev will now face Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the quarterfinals.

Etcheverry through to quarters

In the last and final men’s Round 4 match, Etcheverry qualified for the quarter-finals after beating Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6 (11-9), 6-0, 6-1 on Monday at Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The first set turned out to be an absolute thriller, but the Argentine did not give his opponent any breathing space whatsoever in the next two sets. Etcheverry won 11 games in a row after the opening set to fizzle the spirit out of Japanese.

It is also the first time that Etcheverry advanced to the quarters of any Grand Slam. However, his task cut out as beating Zverev in the quarters may not be a walk in the park.