Roger Federer takes on Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem meets Florian Mayer in Halle
Sunday 19 June 2016 16:08, UK
Roger Federer will have to get past talented teenager Alexander Zverev in the Gerry Weber Open semi-final, live on Sky Sports 3 HD from 11am on Saturday.
An intriguing final four will battle it out for the right to play in Sunday's final when coverage continues on Sky Sports 3 from 11am. Federer's match with Germany's bright young prospect is the game of the day.
The Swiss great has won each of the last three events in Halle, and victory this week would give him an astonishing ninth title as he finetunes his preparations for Wimbledon.
Federer has shown little sign of the back injury that forced him out of Wimbledon and is yet to drop a set in victories over Jan-Lennard Struff, Malek Jaziri and David Goffin but Zverev has also risen to the challenge this week.
The 19-year-old from Hamburg reached his first ATP level final in Nice against Dominic Thiem earlier this year, indeed three of his last four defeat have been against the in-form Austrian.
The other defeat came against Federer, when the man he describes as his idol proved too strong at the Rome Masters to run out a 6-3 7-5 winner.
Saturday's match promises to be a thriller with Federer very much the crowd favourite having racked up 10 finals and eight titles at Halle, but Zverev is very much the coming force and is likely to have the home support firmly in his corner.
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Another German will hope to delight the Gerry Weber Stadium faithful in the other semi-final where Florian Mayer will take on the red-hot Austrian Thiem who has won more matches on tour than any other player this year.
The 22-year-old is chasing a fifth title this season and comes into the match as the world No 7 with a win at the Mercedes Cup in last week's rain effected event.
That title in Stuttgart was a fourth success from five finals this year, with trophies coming on three different surfaces and Mayer will have it all to do if he is to reach a first ATP final since 2011.
Mayer is ranked 192 in the world and has never played Thiem who has shown no sign of tiredness and has reached the semi-final in all but one of his 250/500 level events this year.
You can follow the semi-final on Sky Sports 3 from 11am on Saturday with the final on Sunday from 2pm on the same channel.
