Hello and welcome to coverage from the French Open of the second men’s semi-final between Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud. Zverev reached his fourth semi-final in Paris in four years after a straight-sets win over Alex De Minaur.
The German, who still chasing his first grand slam title, is 0-3 in semi-finals at Roland Garros. “I have the mindset you have to work harder than everyone else to be the best player,” he said. “I like to work to my absolute limit. If I do that then playing five sets all of a sudden is not that difficult.
“I’ve been doing that over many years and I’m happy to be in another semi-final. Hopefully I can win one. I want to be in the finals. That’s my main focus. I’m happy to be where I am. Casper is a great player. He’s made two finals in a row, third semi-final in a row, that speaks for itself. He’s one of the best players on this surface, for sure.
I think I have to play my best tennis to have a chance. But I can go five sets again. But I also do know that it’s better not to.”
Meanwhile, Ruud had a walkover into the last four when Novak Djokovic withdrew through injury. Ruud has been the beaten finalist in the last two years and he has come through this draw almost unnoticed. “I know if the opponents want to beat me, they’re going to have to play really good tennis for at least three full sets, and I’m going to try to make it tough for them,” Ruud said after the quarter-finals.
“It’s been working well the last two, three years here. “With my technical game I’m going to try to play heavy and play the kind of clay court tennis that I like playing. “Physically I’m going to try to be in good shape and make them suffer if I can.”