There’s no doubting that Stefanos Tsitsipas is the future star. He has come close to winning Grand Slams in the past, and now the world no. 5 will square off with another future star, Alexander Zverev, in the French Open semi-final on Thursday.

Tsitsipas reached his fourth major semifinal and third in a row by beat world no. 2 Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (3), 7-5 at court Philippe Chatrier in the last no-spectator night session of this year's tournament.

“I feel privileged that I’m in that position, and I feel obviously I’ve put in a lot of daily hard work (that) has been a key element of me being here. But, you know, my ego tells me I want more,” Tsitsipas said after the quarter-final match. It will be the youngest matchup in the men’s semifinals at Roland Garros since Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic met in 2008.

Tsitsipas is a 22-year-old from Greece. Zverev is a 24-year-old from Germany. Both have won Masters 1000 titles on red clay this year. Both have won the season-ending ATP Finals. Both intend to and, truthfully, are expected to claim one of the four biggest prizes in their sport.

“Obviously, the Grand Slams are the tournaments that we want to win the most. Before, maybe, the last few years, I was putting too much pressure on myself. ... Before Medvedev and Tsitsipas arrived, I was seen as this guy that was going to all of a sudden take over the tennis world,” said Zverev.

Schwartzman “unhappy” over facing Nadal

After beating Jan-Lennard Struff in straight sets, Diego Schwartzman knew a Nadal challenge awaited him in the quarter-finals. And the Argentine jokingly mentioned that he was “not too happy” facing the King of Clay on Wednesday. “I am very happy to be in the quarterfinals again. I am not too happy to play Rafa in the next round but let’s see what happens,” he said.

Talking about his mental set-up before meeting the 13-time Roland Garros winner, the Argentine said, “I think at the beginning of every match against Rafa, you have to walk on the court thinking about winning the match, to have opportunities, to get opportunities. It is important to think about something else and not think about Rafa being on the other side of the net.”

In what is supposed to be the 12th overall clash between the two, the Spaniard has won 10 out of the eleven encounters. The only time Schwartzman beat Nadal was at the Italian Open in 2020. Nadal had lost in straight sets.