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German tennis player Alexander Zverev celebrates defeating US' Frances Tiafoe during their men's singles round of 16 match at the BNP Paribas Open held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells. Charles Baus/CSM via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa Alexander Zverev reached the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Masters for the first time in his career on Thursday and will meet world number two Jannik Sinner. The German won his quarter-final against France's Arthur Fils in convincing fashion, 6-2, 6-3.
He is only the fifth player to complete the set of semi appearances at all nine ATP Masters 1,000 events since they started in 1990, joining Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray. The 28-year-old will take on Sinner after the Italian quickly saw off US prospect Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 at the hard court tournament in the Californian desert, which has a prize fund of $9. 4 million.
Four-times grand slam champion Sinner is looking for his first title of 2026. Zverev, the world number four, had never made it past the quarter-finals in Indian Wells before but has looked in fine form these two weeks. Once again, Zverev managed to impose his new, more aggressive game.
In the second set, he fended off a break point in the first service game and took a break himself to make it 3-2. After 1 hour and 22 minutes, he sealed his place in the semi-finals with his second match point. In the women's tournament, Aryna Sabalenka beat Victoria Mboko 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 to reach the last four after Mboko wasted five break points.
Linda Noskova also went through to the semi-finals after a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over Talia Gibson.