The noose is tightening

Very tough semi-final, although it was not the prime of these players.

Khachanov is still present in M1000, he loves these big tournaments and proves it again. In the quarterfinals he beat Michelsen but scared himself by saving two set points in the second set, he had already given up a break lead against Ruud in the lead round too, he has a little problem finishing his matches at the moment but still remains ultra solid. Zverev did the opposite with a bad start to the match against Popyrin then after he seriously raised his tone to finish very strong, he was like clockwork and seems to be getting better and better in his tournament, I see a rise in power on his side. He leads 5/2 in the H2H including two victories over American hard players last year, they have not played each other again since. The scores were tight but Zverev played better, he would surely have more difficulty this time even if I still think that the matchup is largely in his favor. He defends really well and I don't have the impression that Khachanov's shots hurt him a lot, it's almost as if he likes to lean on his ball (I just rewatched their last two matches). Khachanov's grinder game shows its limits a little against Zverev, especially since the German is extremely efficient on serve, which helps him a lot behind to make his service games easier. The current form gives a little more credit to Khachanov behind and we are in the semi-final so it's a big match and Zverev is not immune to dropping another set