Top seed Alexander Zverev had to contend with a crying baby yesterday before setting up a semi-final clash against South Korea’s Hyeon Chung at the Munich ATP tournament.
The 21-year-old Zverev, ranked third in the world, needed just over an hour to beat German compatriot Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-2 in his quarter-final match.
However, a crying infant briefly distracted Zverev between serves on his second match point before the defending champion wrapped up his 19th match win this year with a second-serve ace.
With good returns and well-placed ground strokes, Zverev had few other problems and despite recent close matches between the pair, Struff never found his rhythm.
“I’m glad I didn’t have to go to three sets again,” said Zverev who had to go the distance to beat Struff in Monaco this year and Munich in 2017.
Zverev will be chasing his first win over Chung after defeats last year in Barcelona and in the third round of the Australian Open in January.
Chung, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals, had few problems as he beat 2014 Munich winner Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-4 in his last eight tie yesterday.
“I’m really happy to make the semi-finals two years in a row,” said Chung.
Chung, 21, beat Klizan in the Munich quarter-finals for the second successive year.
Serving at 4-5 in the second set with the scores at 30-all, Klizan hit a double fault and then struck a forehand long to hand the Korean victory.
Sixth-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4, and awaits the winner of the match between Hungary’s Marton Fucsovic and Germany’s Maximilian Marterer.

Tsitsipas in Estoril semis
Stefanos Tsitsipas swept the last seven points of the match to defeat Roberto Carballes Baena 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (3) yesterday for a place in the semi-finals of the Estoril Open.
The 19-year-old Greek, a surprise finalist last weekend in Barcelona against Rafael Nadal, will aim for his second straight title match as he plays the winner from British third seed Kyle Edmund and Portuguese No.1 Joao Sousa.
The 44th-ranked Tsitsipas recovered from 0-3 down in the final-set tiebreaker, erasing the deficit and sprinting to a victory that was sealed when his 77th-ranked opponent drove a return long.
The battle between first-time opponents lasted for nearly two and three-quarter hours.
Tsitsipas is coming off his best performance on clay and just defeated his second top-10 opponent in as many weeks, adding Estoril top seed Kevin Anderson to his list of victims on Thursday.
Last week, the outsider beat world number seven Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals.

Kvitova reaches Prague final
Czech Petra Kvitova reached her third WTA final of the season on home soil in Prague with a 7-6 (6), 6-0 victory over Chinese player Zhang Shuai yesterday.
Kvitova, who won tournaments earlier this year in St Petersburg and Doha, will face either Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu or Italy’s Camila Giorgi in the final as she looks for her first clay-court title since the 2015 Madrid Open.
The two-time Wimbledon champion has risen back into the world’s top 10 this year after dropping down the rankings following a hand injury inflicted in a knife attack at her home in 2016.
The 28-year-old needed four set points to clinch the opener against Zhang in a tie-break, but raced through the second for the loss of just six points.