Alexander Zverev reached his first-ever Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday when he beat Stan Wawrinka in the Australian Open.
He is now set to play Rafael Nadal while the favourite, Novak Djokovic plays Roger Federer in the other semi-final.
After losing the first set 1-6, Zverev stormed back to win next three 6-3 6-4 6-2.
The victory takes him into the men’s semi-finals at Melbourne Park and puts him within two games of carrying off his first Grand Slam title. It hasn’t caused him to change his mind, however, about his stunning first round promise.
The 22-year-old German pledged to give the entire winner’s prize fund to bushfire relief if he won the title. And that’s a lot of money. It’s worth all of 4,120,000 Australian dollars!
Australian hearts were touched
The gesture touched hearts in Australia and it could well make him the locals favourite in his semi-final against Rafael Nadal.
When asked about his pledge after his victory over Wawrinka, he told reporters: “My parents grew up in the Soviet Union, where you were a professional tennis player. My dad would make money outside the country, but he would have to give it in when he was getting (back) into the country.
“Funny enough, they never had any money. You would think that maybe now we have some, you would want to keep it all for yourself. But they’ve always said that money is something that should bring (good) change in the world. It should not be kept in a bank account doing nothing.
“Of course, if I win the four million, it’s a lot of money for me. I’m not Roger Federer, I’m not LeBron James, something like that. This is still big. But at the same time I know that there are people right now in this country, in this beautiful country, that lost their homes and everything. They need the money a lot more than I do.
“They actually depend on it, to build up their homes again. They need it to build up their houses again, build up the nature that Australia has; the animals as well. I think there’s much better use for those people with that money than I have right now.”
On Wednesday Djokovic at -250 remained the strong favourite to win the men’s open singles. FanDuel had Zverev in third place at +1000 with Nadal second at +600. Federer was the semi-final outsider at +1500.
A man of his word.@AlexZverev reiterates an earlier pledge. If he wins two more matches, and the #AO2020 title, he’ll donate the AUD$4.12 million (US$2.78 million) in prize money to bushfire relief efforts.#AusOpen | #Rally4Relief | #Aces4BushfireRelief pic.twitter.com/z5ODjqTO0x
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 29, 2020