PARIS (France): Italy’s Jannik Sinner defeated sixth seed Alexander Zverev at the French Open on Sunday to become the youngest men’s Grand Slam quarterfinalist since Novak Djokovic in Paris in 2006.
Sinner, aged 19 years and 56 days, won 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to set up a showdown with 12-time champion Rafael Nadal.
He is first player to reach the last eight on his Roland Garros debut since Nadal lifted the trophy in 2005.
“Today was very tough knowing that it’s going to be a long match but in the end I’m very happy about my performance,” said the 75th-ranked Sinner.
Last year’s NextGen champion dropped his first set of the tournament against US Open runner-up Zverev but demonstrated his resolve to close out the win in four.
“If you lose one set you just try and keep going. Even in the third set I knew I was still playing well,” said Sinner, the second youngest player to begin this year’s main draw.
“I tried to be focused in the first service game in the fourth set, which I did, and then it went quite well.”
