Munich. He did it - and the relief was huge! Alexander Zverev has defeated the Argentinian clay court specialist Francisco Cerundolo for the first time on his favourite surface and has reached the semi-finals of the BMW Open by Bitpanda for the fifth time.
It was a wild rollercoaster ride in which Zverev led 4:1 in the first set, only to lose the set 5:7. All the cheers from the enthusiastic crowd on the sold-out centre court didn't help. "He just played incredibly aggressive tennis, there was nothing I could do," said Zverev after the match. And he alone gave the right answer, breaking Cerundolo's serve right at the start of the second set and pulling away. This set went to the world number three 6:0. Alexander Zverev didn't let up in the third set either, with two more breaks for him and after 2:15 hours he converted his first match point to win 5:7, 6:0 and 6:2: "Overall I'm very happy, finally my first win on clay against him. I'm very happy to be back in the semi-finals".
Alexander Zverev will now face Flavio Cobolli from Italy. The 23-year-old, world number 16, beat Vit Kopriva from the Czech Republic 6:3 and 6:2 and has yet to drop a set in the tournament. He is playing in the BMW Open by Bitpanda for the third time and this is his first semi-final in Munich.
The duel between the two youngsters, Ben Shelton and Joao Fonseca, lived up to its promise. It was an exciting and evenly matched game between the two young players. Last year's finalist from the USA had the better nerves in the end. Ben Shelton with the decisive break in the third and deciding set to make it 4:2. The world number six defeated 19-year-old Joao Fonseca from Brazil in three sets (6:3; 3:6; 6:3) and is one step closer to his big goal of winning the BMW Open by Bitpanda.
The German Davis Cup doubles team Krawietz/Pütz was surprisingly eliminated in the first round - but the "Bavarian doubles team" Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner made it to the final. The pair, who come from Wasserburg and Munich and had already made it through to the semi-finals last year, won in two sets against Michael Venus (NZL) and Yuki Bhambri (IND) (6:1; 7:5). The jubilation was of course huge, the doubles final will be played on Sunday at 11:00 am.
The finals of the Allianz Para Trophy will be played on Saturday and the winners will be honoured afterwards. Almost all the favourites are still in the tournament, with the number one and two seeded players competing against each other in the Open Division: Gustavo Fernandez from Argentina and Stephane Houdet from France. In the Quad Division, the world number two and three will face off: Sam Schroeder from the Netherlands against Guy Sasson from Israel; the latter had won surprisingly clearly against world number one Niels Vink.
Stream all matches for free on Joyn
Without exception, all matches from Centre Court can once again be followed live and free of charge via the streaming app Joyn. Viewers will not miss a single second of the BMW Open by Bitpanda 2026 there and on ran.de, with additional highlights, behind-the-scenes and news coverage. Both singles semi-finals on Saturday and the singles final on Sunday will also be broadcast live on ProSieben Maxx. As usual, Sky will broadcast all matches on pay TV.
