Top seed Zverev crashes out to Ivashka

Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka celebrates his win over Germany’s Alexander Zverev (right) in their BMW Open quarter-final in Munich yesterday. (AFP)

Top seed Alexander Zverev crashed out of Munich’s ATP clay court tournament after a shock defeat to qualifier Ilya Ivashka in the quarter-finals yesterday. Despite winning the opening set on a tie-breaker, Zverev, the 2017 and 2018 Munich champion, bowed out 7-6 (5), 5-7, 3-6 after Ivashka of Belarus converted his first match point. The 27-year-old is ranked 101 places below world number six Zverev, 24, who made numerous errors and rowed throughout the match with his coach, who is also his father, sat in the stands. “This is a match I should never have lost — I’m sad and disappointed”, admitted Germany’s Zverev. Half of his 14 double faults came in the deciding set as Zverev lost after two hours, 33 minutes while Ivashka reached a semi-final on tour for the first time in his career. In today’s semis, Ivashka faces Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff who needed exactly three hours to seal a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3) win over fourth-seed Filip Krajinovic. The seventh seed held his nerve against Krajinovic in a deciding set where both players had their serve broken three times. Struff finally won on his third match point when Serbia’s Krajinovic served a double fault in the tiebreaker. “Ivashka is playing quite good tennis here,” said Struff after the 27-year-old Belarusian “blew away” Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori 6-1, 6-2 in the first round. This is the first time the 31-year-old Struff has reached the semis in Munich since 2014 and this will be his eighth attempt to reach the final of an ATP tournament for the first time. “I haven’t yet taken that final step to play for a title and, of course, I would like to do that,” Struff added.