Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas has beaten world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in straight sets to advance to the French Open semi-finals for the second straight year and end the Russian's surprise clay run.
The Greek got revenge for his Australian Open semi-final loss to the Russian this year and improved his Grand Slam quarter-final record to 4-0 with a 6-3 7-6(3) 7-5 win that teed up a last-four clash against Germany's Alexander Zverev.
"It was a very close match and we both served pretty well," Tsitsipas says. "It was intense.
"I was playing against one of the best guys on the tour. I had to keep up the intensity and elevate my game throughout the entire match.
"I am happy to keep repeating, trying to go further."
Medvedev, who squandered two set points in the second set and only converted two of his eight breakpoints, had not won a single match at the French Open, before his run to the last eight this year.
Yet after finally finding his feet on the red dirt, he had few chances against the 22-year-old Tsitsipas, who has had a superb clay season so far.
Tsitsipas, a winner in Lyon and Monte Carlo on clay this year, wrongfooted the Russian to convert his first breakpoint for 3-1 lead as he comfortably held serve in the first set.
Medvedev, who made 44 unforced errors in the match - almost twice as many as the Greek - saved a Tsitsipas setpoint at 5-2, but the fifth seed wrapped it up a game later with a volley.
Tsitsipas then won 11 straight points to break the Russian again early in the second set and cruise to a 3-1 lead.
Yet his opponent launched a comeback, bagging his own first break, en route to a three-game run.
Medvedev improved his first-serve percentage and even carved out two setpoints, but his opponent saved them to hold and force a tiebreak.
Tsitsipas survived his second-set wobble to clinch it with a volley on his first setpoint.
The pair traded breaks in the third, before Tsitsipas broke again, winning on his first matchpoint, after an underarm serve from Medvedev.
Zverev brushes Davidovich Fokina reach semis
Meanwhile, Zverev has settled some early nerves, beating Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4 6-1 6-1 to reach the French Open semi-finals for the first time.
After an early argument with chair umpire Alison Hughes over a line call, Zverev clicked into gear, while an increasingly despondent Fokina wavered.
Sixth seed Zverev - the first German to reach the last four at Roland Garros since Michael Stich in 1996 - was simply too good for the world No. 46, who managed to hold serve only three times for his first appearance on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Zverev believes he is slowly coming of age, after reaching the last four of a Grand Slam for the third time in his last five Grand Slams.
"Before, maybe the last few years, I was putting too much pressure on myself," says the 24-year-old. "Also obviously in the media, I was seen - before Medvedev and Tsitsipas arrived - as this guy that was going to all of a sudden take over the tennis world.
"I was putting pressure on myself as well. I was not very patient with myself, which I feel like now maybe I learned how to deal with the situation a little bit better.
"I'm maybe a little bit calmer at the tournaments."
Zverev came back from two sets down in his first-round match, but since then the German has been steamrollering his opponents and is hungry for more.
"Obviously it's very nice to be in the semi-finals but that doesn't satisfy me. I've been playing better and better and now we'll see what happens next," he said.
Knocked out in the quarter-finals twice before - by Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic - Zverev stood a better chance against the lower-ranked Fokina.
But the Spaniard signalled his intentions by breaking in the first game, moving his opponent around and mixing it with drop shots.
Zverev broke straight back, but looked out of sorts, when the chair umpire corrected him on a line call, denying him another break.
But Fokina struggled with his service games, as Zverev's confidence grew.
Hitting winner after winner, while his 21-year-old opponent failed to keep the ball on court, Zverev raced to a routine win as he claimed his 15th consecutive set in Paris.
Reuters
