Alexander Zverev can continue to hope for his first triumph at a grass court tournament. Germany's top star, who is ranked third in the world, defeated the Italian Lorenzo Sonego 3:6, 6:4 and 7:6 in three sets in almost two and a half hours on Thursday. And on Friday he will play the next player from ‘Bella Italia’: Flavio Cobolli is the name of his opponent, who won a crazy match with many twists and turns against Denis Shapovalov 7:6, 4:6 and 7:6. After his tournament victory in Hamburg, Cobolli is currently on a 7-0 run in Germany. However, Zverev's form should not be underestimated either: If you disregard the defeat in the final in Stuttgart, the grass court season is going well for the Hamburg native. Perhaps so good that he could win the title in Halle? He has already reached the final of the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN twice, in 2016 and 2017, but lost to Florian Mayer and Roger Federer. Cobolli against Zverev is the second match of the day in the OWL Arena.
The third quarter-final match of the 32nd TERRA WORTMANN OPEN on Centre Court (not before 3 p.m.) will be contested by Alexander Bublik and Tomas Machac. After Bublik knocked world number one Jannik Sinner, who was also the defending champion in Halle, out of the tournament on Thursday, the Kazakh is the favourite. However, the Czech Machac is seeded seventh in Halle and should therefore not be underestimated. On Thursday, he won clearly against Fabian Marozsan 6:2, 6:3. Alexander Bublik, Halle 2023 winner, got into the match better and better after a 3:6 first set against Sinner and turned the match around with a 6:3, 6:4 win.
In addition, Daniil Medvedev (ATP 11), the former world number one, will face the American Alex Michelsen (ATP 33). It is the first match on Centre Court from 11.30 am. Medvedev has now racked up 400 wins on the ATP Tour and is in the quarter-finals of an ATP tournament for the 83rd time, the 13th time on grass. Alex Michelsen wants to prevent Medvedev from reaching the final in Halle, as he did in 2022. So far, the 20-year-old American has impressed with excellent serves and powerful baseline shots. Curious: The two have only faced each other once in their careers, the match in Indian Wells in March was scored in Medvedev's favour because Michelsen had to retire due to injury at 0:2 in the first set.
Tomas Martin Etcheverry (ATP 63) knocked fourth seed Andrey Rublev (ATP 14) out of the tournament in the round of 16 and proved his stamina in the process. The Argentinian needed more than three hours for his 6:3, 6:7, 7:6 victory against the two-time Halle finalist. After his first win against a top 20 player since 2023, Etcheverry will face Karen Khachanov (ATP 22) in his first grass court quarter-final. The 29-year-old had previously beaten Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (ATP 27) in a wild rollercoaster of a match. Etcheverry against Khachanov is the last match of the day on Centre Court.
