About 107 minutes into men’s semi-final day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, there was finally a touch of tension radiating from the court. After falling down a set and break, his semi-final meeting with his old rival Alexander Zverev swiftly turning into a beating, Karen Khachanov fought hard to force a second-set tie-break. Deep in that tension-filled tie-break, down 5-6 on his serve, Khachanov saved Zverev’s first set point with a bold forehand winner, and then at 6-7 he punctuated a screaming backhand passing shot winner with an imperious roar of his own.
There was a time when Zverev might have faltered under such pressure, but he has won too many big matches this year to allow such a small surge from a lower-ranked opponent to scare him. Zverev composed himself and he quickly regained control, navigating a second tense tie-break in similar fashion as he moved to within one match of winning a second career grand slam title in his last three major appearances by defeating Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6).
Zverev has now reached three consecutive grand slam finals for the first time in his career, with the German following up his maiden grand slam title at Roland Garros with a first Wimbledon final this summer. Zverev reached his first grand slam final here back in 2020, losing to Dominic Thiem in a dramatic five-set match during a closed Covid-era tournament after leading by two sets and serving for the title. He will now compete for the title in his sixth grand slam final.
Although Zverev was heavily favoured to win this match, it was not a given. Khachanov’s current ranking of No 50 belies the impressive resume built by the 30-year-old over his career. He reached a career high ranking of No 8, won an Olympic silver medal behind Zverev in Tokyo 2020 and won Paris Masters in 2018. He has also won more matches against Zverev than the other two remaining players combined, with Zverev leading their head to head 6-3 but the Russian winning as recently as last year in Canada.
In the end, the quality of Zverev’s serve and his consistency off the ground were more than sufficient to smother the challenge from Khachanov, whose faulty forehand badly leaked errors throughout their time on court, particularly in the decisive moments late in the second and third sets.
Back at Roland Garros, after the shock second-round loss of Jannik Sinner, the injury absence of Carlos Alcaraz and the late-career difficulties of Novak Djokovic, the central theme for much of the tournament was whether any player left in the draw could stop Zverev from marching to the title.
Zverev has enjoyed a similar path through the top half of this draw, with his highest-ranked opponents en-route to the final No 22 Luciano Darderi and No 28 Alejandro Tabilo. Should he win the US Open, Zverev will have won his first two grand slam titles without facing a top-eight player. Still, a tennis player can only beat the one in front of them and after two tense five-set matches in his first two rounds, Zverev has not dropped a set. No matter who he faces, Zverev will like his chances in the final, where he holds a combined 15-1 record against Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, his one loss to Tiafoe coming nine years ago.
Despite the fact that Zverev is the second-ranked player, his opponent was a former semi-finalist here, it is difficult to think of many men’s grand slam semi-final matches over the past few years that have generated so little interest or fanfare. One of the many controversial aspects of the tournament right now is the ticket resale market due to the exorbitant prices of so many of the tickets on those websites during the tournament. There was no danger of punters overpaying for this one: tickets were selling for as low as $21 (£15.50) on StubHub before the match.
