Alexander Zverev took a giant step towards claiming an elusive first Grand Slam crown with a memorable Australian Open quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz in Wednesday's finale.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz gave himself a shred of hope after a slow start, but he was ultimately made to pay for his early mistakes as Zverev triumphed 6-1 6-3 6-7[2] 6-4 in just over three hours.
The German sixth seed capitalised on a plethora of unforced errors from Alcaraz and had the chance to serve for the match at 5-3 in the third set, only for the Spaniard to earn his first break of the contest in dramatic circumstances.
Alcaraz had reverted to his ruthless ways and came good in the tie-breaker to force a fourth set, but there would be no extraordinary comeback for the Wimbledon winner, who lost serve in the ninth game of the final set and eventually fell to a stellar Zverev display.
The German - who landed a staggering 86% of his first serves throughout the four-set battle - now contends for a spot in the final against Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev, who overcame Hubert Hurkacz in a five-set thriller.
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In a highly-anticipated battle between two of the tallest players on the ATP Tour, the 6ft 6in Medvedev prevailed 7-6[4] 2-6 6-3 5-7 6-4 over the 6ft 5in Hurkacz, taking three hours and 59 minutes to reach his third Australian Open semi-final.
Medvedev was unsurprisingly second-best to Hurkacz on serve and was harmed by a total of 10 double faults throughout the quarter-final, but he coincidentally saved 10 of the 15 break points that the Pole fashioned and sealed victory with a deft drop shot.
While Medvedev and Zverev are no strangers to Grand Slam semi-finals, Dayana Yastremska and Qinwen Zheng have both broken new ground in Melbourne, reaching the last four of a major tournament for the very first time.
Ukrainian qualifier Yastremska kicked off Wednesday's action against Czech 19-year-old Linda Noskova, whom she dominated from start to finish in a 6-3 6-4 win to continue her phenomenal journey Down Under.
Despite being broken in the third game of the match, the powerful Yastremska fought back immediately and won four of the final five games in the opening set, before Noskova fatally lost serve in the seventh game of the second set.
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Yastremska subsequently shut the door on her teenage foe and converted her first match point to become only the fifth women's singles qualifier to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in the Open Era, and the first at the Australian Open since 1978.
The world number 93 is now just two matches away from following in the footsteps of 2021 US Open winner Emma Raducanu, who remains the only qualifier to win a women's singles title at a Grand Slam.
Squaring up to Yastremska for a place in the final will be Chinese 12th seed Zheng, who battled back from a dissatisfactory start to prevail 6-7[4] 6-3 6-1 against Anna Kalinskaya in two hours and 20 minutes.
Zheng - who will break into the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time thanks to her semi-final progression - lost serve immediately after breaking twice in the first set, but her superior fitness came to the fore as the match wore on.
Kalinskaya required the trainer with the third set slipping away from her, and Zheng - who hit 10 aces in the quarter-final - needed just one match point to become the third Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam semi after Li Na and Zheng Jie.
Ben Knapton
