Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas are safely through to the semifinals of the Italian Open.
Zverev’s quest for his first title of the season continued when he overcame Cristian Garin 7-5, 6-2.
In a dominating performance, the World No. 3 struck 24 winners and broke his opponent four times to advance after one hour and 51 minutes.
With his victory, Zverev has now leveled his ATP Head2Head series with Garin at 1-1, gaining revenge for his defeat to the World No. 45 on clay in Munich in 2019.
The German can move to within 140 points of Medvedev should he win his sixth ATP Masters 1000 title on Sunday.
By reaching the Italian Open semifinal, Zverev has enjoyed a run to at least the last four at the three clay-court ATP Masters 1000 events this season.
The 25-year-old now faces the man who he lost to in the semi-finals in Monte Carlo in April.
The champion of that tournament, Tsitsipas, overcame the Italian Jannik Sinner and a raucous home crowd to reach the semi-finals of the tournament for the second time.
The Greek kept his composure as he demonstrated great footwork to dictate with his forehand and move past the 20-year-old 7-6(5), 6-2 in two hours and 24 minutes.
With Nadal already out of the picture, and the recently surging Carlos Alcaraz also missing, this might be the golden opportunity for either of these men to build substantial momentum on clay courts before the French Open begins.
