Alexander Zverev reached the quarterfinals of the tennis tournament in Paris. The world number three won his round of 16 against local hero Arthur Fils 6:4, 3:6, 6:3 and took a little revenge on the Frenchman for the lost final of the ATP tournament in his hometown of Hamburg in July. In the fight for the semi-finals, Zverev will face Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece.

For Zverev it is the fourth quarter-final at the Masters 1000 event in the Bercy district of Paris. In the previous round, the Hamburg player had prevailed against the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in two sets. The 27-year-old had a bye at the start.

Zverev has strong nerves, Fils has a freak out

Against France’s great hope Fils (20), Zverev showed many forehand errors in the first set, but managed to get his serves through despite some effort. When the break made it 5:4, he took advantage of Fils’ little phase of weakness. In the second set it was the other way around, Zverev gave up his own serve without winning a point to make it 1:3 and Fils secured passage, much to the delight of the French fans.

In the decisive third set, Zverev kept his nerve despite the increasingly heated atmosphere in the Bercy Arena and took the serve game from his opponent to make it 3-1. In the dramatic last service game, Germany’s number one fended off three break points and converted his second match point after 2:09 hours.

Fils was visibly upset at times, he got very upset with the referee because of a bad decision: “You are so bad, unbelievable.” He incited the audience again. Zverev’s Davis Cup teammate Jan-Lennard Struff was also among the spectators. The 34-year-old Sauerlander lost to Fils in the second round.

A little later, the French fans had reason to celebrate again. Ugo Humbert caused a big surprise in the round of 16 with a 6:1, 3:6, 7:5 win against Spanish world number two Carlos Alcaraz. The 26-year-old’s next opponent is the Australian Jordan Thompson.