Tennis, German Zverev returns to final in Rome

Seven years after his victory on the clay of Rome, where at that time he had been the youngest player to reach the final since 2006 (a record held by Rafa Nadal), Germany's Alexander Zverev returned to the final at the Foro Italico at the end of a two-sided semi-final with Chile's Alejandro Tabilo. Zverev won with a score of 1-6 7-6 6-2 against the surprise of the tournament, that Tabilo who had been able to overcome the obstacle of the world number one, Novak Djokovic, in the previous rounds.

A two-sided match, it was said: Zverev was dominated in the first set by Tabilo, who at the beginning showed off a tennis of yesteryear, made of daring angles and impregnable bunts: bewildered, Zverev lost the first set 6-1. In the second set Zverev took countermeasures and tried to play central to avoid the angles of Tabilo. Mission successful as the German, also thanks to his first serve, managed to get to the tiebreak to dominate it. At that point the match was downhill for Zverev: Tabilo started to make more free errors and for the German the third set ended easily with a final partial of 6-2.

Now in the final Zverev awaits the winner of the other semi-final, scheduled for later in the evening, between the American Tommy Paul, ranked number 16, and the other Chilean Nicolás Jarry, ranked number 23. Zverev, world number 5, thus becomes the big favourite at the Foro Italico to win a second time in Rome after his triumph on 21 May 2017 when he beat Novak Đoković with a score of 6-4 6-3, winning his first ATP Masters 1000 at that time. After all, the German tennis player has experienced complicated moments in recent years. In June 2022, he injured his ankle in the semi-final of Roland Garros in front of Rafa Nadal. He has to stay off the court for seven months to recover. A period of ups and downs followed until the final on Sunday. The defection of host Sinner and Spaniard Alcaraz and the eliminations of Djokovic and Medvedev now offer the German a great chance of victory.