ATP Tour

Zverev overcomes brief ‘out-of-nowhere’ illness, Cobolli for Halle SF spot

Under the weather early, but into the Terra Wortmann Open semi-finals on time nonetheless.

Alexander Zverev endured a rough start to his quarter-final clash with Flavio Cobolli on Friday at the grass ATP 500 in Halle, before the home favourite returned to seal a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory. Zverev had to rush from the court for an impromptu toilet break due to illness at 1-0, 40/40 in the first set, but later completed a one-hour, 41-minute triumph at OWL Arena.

“I felt fine before the match, and then out of nowhere I felt really, really bad and felt ill,” explained Zverev. “I went to throw up, and then 15 minutes later I felt okay again. So I don’t know what it was. I’ve never experienced that before, to be honest. Hopefully I will be fine the next couple of hours, when the adrenalin settles. After that, I think it was a pretty good match.”

All eyes on AZ 👀

[2] @AlexZverev defies Cobolli 6-4, 7-6(6) to book a 5th Halle semi-final @ATPHalle | #ATPHalle pic.twitter.com/4M9OjTBL7d

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 20, 2025

Zverev let out a burst of emotion after firing a big first serve, which Cobolli was unable to return, to clinch his win in the second-set tie-break. The second seed is now 21-8 in Halle, where he reached the championship match in 2016 and 2017, while has now become just the fifth player to reach five or more semi-finals at the event after former champions Roger Federer, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Tommy Haas.

In a rematch of their Roland Garros third-round meeting just less than three weeks ago, Zverev earned another straight-sets victory against Cobolli with an impressive serving performance in Halle. The second seed won 81 per cent (46/57) of points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, while he also crucially saved all six break points he faced by rallying from 0/40 in both the second and fourth games of the match.

A finalist in Stuttgart last week, Zverev will now aim to earn back-to-back championship-match appearances on grass when he faces one of his oldest rivals in the semi-finals: Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev earlier overcame Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-3 to reach his third tour-level semi-final of the season. The 29-year-old, who is guaranteed to return to the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday after spending six weeks as No. 11, leads Zverev 12-7 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

“I think it’s the guy I played the most in my career, so I’m looking forward to it,” said Zverev ahead of his first tour-level meeting with Medvedev since the 2024 Australian Open semi-finals. “A lot of things happened in the past 18 months. Definitely he’s one of the toughest opponents in my career. It’s going to be a great match and I’m really looking forward to facing him.”

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Alexander Bublik and Karen Khachanov will contest the second semi-final on Saturday in Halle. Bublik, who stunned World No. 1 and 2024 champion Jannik Sinner in the second round, eased past seventh seed Tomas Machac 7-6(2), 6-3. The Kazakhstani later revealed his delight at the way he backed up the biggest win of his career.

“I didn’t have a really good night of sleep [after the Sinner win],” admitted 2023 Halle titlist Bublik. “I tried to keep focused, but there are thoughts and everything on social media, receiving a lot of messages. But I’m really happy I was in control of the match [against Machac]. I lost it a bit at the end of the first set… He broke my serve, but I was solid enough to take the tie-break.”

Bublik will aim to sink a seeded opponent for the third consecutive day when he takes on eighth seed Khachanov, who downed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-2, at OWL Arena. Khachanov enters the semi-final clash having won the pair's only previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, in 2020 in Cincinnati.