Alexander Zverev advanced to his fifth straight ATP Masters 1000 semifinal after a commanding win at the Mutua Madrid Open.

The two-time champion beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 6-4 to register his 25th victory of the season. Zverev surged to a 5-0 lead in the opening set and kept control through the finish, closing the match with a +4 differential from 23 winners and 19 unforced errors. His serve produced 12 aces and a 9.5 serve quality rating.

This semifinal marks the end, for now, of a streak in which Zverev repeatedly crossed paths with Jannik Sinner; this time he avoided that matchup. The run of results stretches back to the 2025 Paris Rolex Masters.

Zverev, who remains No. 3 in the rankings, is seeking his first title since winning in Munich last April. Cobolli had ended Zverev’s chance to retain that Munich crown earlier in the season.

“No revenge, I love Flavio. He’s one of my favorite guys on tour,” insisted Zverev during his ATP Media interview with Ursin Cadereas. “This is sport. Sport can change very quickly. In Munich, he played an amazing match. I didn’t play a very good match. Today, maybe it was the opposite.”

With the victory Zverev, the Hamburg native, now holds 179 clay-court wins, the most by any German male player in the Open Era. Despite that milestone, a stubborn problem remains: he has lost six previous Masters 1000 semifinals and has yet to break that sequence.

“Of course, I need to get past this stage now,” he laughed.

Zverev’s opponent in the Madrid semifinal will be Alexander Blockx. The 21-year-old Belgian, last December’s runner-up at the Next Gen ATP Finals, eliminated the reigning champion Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to reach his first Masters 1000 semifinal.

“I think he has great spirit when he’s on the tennis court. I enjoy watching him play,” commented Zverev.

Alexander Blockx continued his breakthrough run at the Mutua Madrid Open, beating Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to reach his first Masters 1000 semifinal. The 21-year-old Belgian notched his third straight Top 20 victory at the Caja Magica, improving to 4-2 overall.

“I’m just happy with being here,” Blockx said on court after the match. “Even winning my first match here, I barely escaped in the first round and I was happy about that already. The semifinals is something I wouldn’t have even dreamed of to begin with. I’m proud of how I’m playing the last couple of matches.”

A former Australian Open junior champion and the 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up to Learner Tien, Blockx entered Madrid unseeded and has translated that form into big wins. He began the 2026 season with an ATP Challenger title over Rafael Jodar and recorded his first Top 20 victory over Flavio Cobolli at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. In Madrid he beat former world No. 17 Cristian Garin in three sets before dispatching a string of seeds: No. 28 Brandon Nakashima, No. 3 Félix Auger-Aliassime for his first Top 10 win, and No. 16 Francisco Cerundolo.

On Manolo Santana Stadium, Blockx was quicker out of the gate with an early 4-2 lead. Ruud pulled level at 4-all, but Blockx broke back and survived a marathon tenth game to serve out the opening set on his fourth set point. “From the first game, I felt I was hitting the ball quite well and I made every return. With the second set, when we h

The second set saw Ruud try to push early; Blockx saved a break point and then surged three games later, racing to a 0-40 lead on Ruud’s serve before taking control. Ruud saved two match points on his own serve as the contest passed the 90-minute mark, but Blockx composedly served out the upset after one hour and 36 minutes and advanced to the semifinals.

“The conditions suit me well here,” Blockx said. “It’s clay, which is slow, which I have time to settle and hit my shots. At the same time, it’s quite fast with the altitude and the heat. I think it’s a perfect combination.”

Jannik Sinner’s composure closed the door on a determined Rafael Jodar in a Madrid quarterfinal that felt like a passage between generations. Nineteen-year-old Jodar, who has won a title and reached a Barcelona semifinal in recent weeks, arrived in Manolo Santana Stadium carrying momentum and the hometown crowd’s hope.

Early on Jodar looked ready. At 1-2 in the first set he thumped a 109 mph forehand to earn a break point and produced heavy, 90-m.p.h. groundstrokes that repeatedly pushed Sinner onto the defensive. But nerves showed: a tense backhand on that first break chance ticked the top of the tape and allowed Sinner back in, and Jodar remained error-prone and hesitant through the opening set.

The second set delivered the duel everyone expected. Jodar, deceptively quick for a 6-foot-3 player, frequently took the initiative, pressing with weighty forehands and a strong backhand. He saved two break points at 4-4 to force a tiebreak and demonstrated he can trade blows with the sport’s best.

Sinner, the world No. 1, answered with steady, clutch shotmaking. In one service game he saved four break points across that game and the previous, producing a forehand winner, a lob winner and additional forehand winners. When faced with a late break chance he used a drop shot to create an opening, then angled a backhand that clipped the sideline. Jodar’s stunned reaction—a slow raise of his hand to his forehead—made clear the moment’s weight.

“This time Sinner took the rally into his own hands with a drop shot. Jodar, rangy and deceptively fast for someone 6-foot-3, reached it in time to slide a backhand slice crosscourt. Sinner, with little time to react, angled a backhand behind Jodar that briefly looked as if it would fly wide. But it didn’t fly wide. It landed right on the sideline. All Jodar could do was stare, and slowly raise his hand to his forehead, in disbelief. It would be his last break point. He had knocked as hard as he could on the door, but Sinner wouldn’t let him in.

“He pushed me to the limit,” 0. “He’s an incredible player. I tried to be as ready as I could.”

Sinner closed with a perfect 7-0 tiebreak, finishing with 28 winners to Jodar’s 19. “I got a bit lucky in the second set, but also a bit of experience,” Sinner said. The match confirmed Jodar’s arrival and reinforced Sinner’s ability to summon calm under pressure.