Zverev shakes off illness attack to advance in Halle

Alexander Zverer left the court to vomit early in his quarter-final against Flavio Cobolli but quickly returned to court to produce a 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory at the ATP Helle event.

The German who has lost two finals at the grass tuneup, had to rush away in the second game of the afternoon as he suddenly felt ill.

But he came straight back out and got to work on his victory after one and three-quarter hours.

“I felt fine before the match, and then out of nowhere I felt really, really bad and felt ill,” he said. “I went to throw up, and then 15 minutes later I felt okay again. So I don’t know what it was.”

He added: “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.”

Zverev, seeded second  and the high-est-ranked player remaining after the second-round knockout of Jannik Sinner, improved to 21-8 at the home tournament where he lost finals in 2016 and 2017,

The German defeated Cobolli less than a month ago in the Roland Garros third-round; he saved all six break points he faced in this latest meeting .

Zverev is keen for another German title after missing out with a loss last weekend in the Stuttgart final to Taylo Fritz.

He will duel for the final against Daniil Medvedev, who beat Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-3. Medvedev leads Zverev 12-7 in their career series.

“I think it’s the guy I played the most in my career, so I’m looking forward to it,” Zverev said of the matchup.

“A lot of things have happened in the past 18 months (since their 2024 Australian Open semi). . 

“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.”