Alexander Zverev sets up semi-final showdown with nemesis Daniil Medvedev by crushing Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open

Two weeks after Netflix’s Break Point documentary released an episode dedicated to their heated rivalry, Alexander Zverev scored the win of a lifetime to set up a showdown with his nemesis Daniil Medvedev.

Germany’s No. 6 defeated Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 and will face Medvedev in the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Friday – their first meeting in a Grand Slam.

Episode four of Break Point season two was controversial. Zverev was the hero – who bravely fought back from a terrible injury – and Medvedev was the villain, using mental warfare and poor sportsmanship to destabilize his opponent.

Many tennis fans felt uncomfortable with Netflix’s decision to cast Zverev in the role of the good guy, while making no mention of the fact that he was fined €450,000 in Germany over allegations of physical abuse of a woman, a charge he denies and disputes.

The episode focuses on Zverev’s tempestuous defeat to Medvedev in Monte Carlo last year, with the German losing focus as his opponent sowed chaos: arguing with the crowd, taking a toilet break in the middle of a set and playfully removing one of the net posts .

Alcaraz fought back from a 3-1 deficit in the third set, but finally broke free in the fourth

Zverev called Medvedev “one of the most dishonest players in the world” after the match, and at Break Point one of his coaching staff says: “I’ve lost all respect for the man.”

“Sascha lives in his own world,” Medvedev responded at the time.

The 27-year-old Russian leads the head-to-head match-up 11-7, but if Zverev produces the kind of tennis he brought against Alcaraz, it will be 11-8 on Friday.

Zverev played with controlled, consistent aggression against the Spaniard, scoring a barely believable 85 percent of his first serves. Almost as impressive as the way he took a straight-set lead 5-2 was the way he responded when Alcaraz came alive to force a fourth set.

“I rushed him quite a bit,” Zverev said. ‘I played extremely aggressively and more or less took the racket out of his hands. You have to do that to him. If you let him determine the points, determine the pace of the game, he is unbeatable. In that respect he is the best player in the world.

‘I really had to take matters into my own hands and I thought I did a good job.’

It was the 26-year-old’s first ever win against a top five player in a Grand Slam and he will have to beat two more – first Medvedev and then Novak Djokovic or Jannik Sinner – to win the title.

As for Alcaraz, if Zverev was mind-bogglingly good, he was mind-bogglingly poor and his relative slump since winning the Wimbledon title continues. A second-place finish in Cincinnati is his best finish since that extraordinary day on Center Court.

Zverev only achieved his first-ever victory over a top-five player at a Grand Slam on Wednesday

The German will have to beat opponent Daniil Medvedev to reach Sunday’s showpiece

Normally a model of calm, he was frantic against Zverev, overheated and overworked. The coach of 20-year-old Juan Carlos Ferrero is recovering from knee surgery and has not traveled to Australia. Who knows how great the loss of that calming influence in his box has been?

The world number 2’s shot selection has been questionable at times since Wimbledon, as if he feels the need to live up to his status as the most entertaining player in the game.

Nick Kyrgios hit the nail on the head in commentary when, in advice that could very well apply to himself, he said: “He doesn’t always have to be so spectacular and hit crazy shots. People pay to watch him just because he is who he is.

‘Sometimes he sets the bar so high. He’s going to win a lot of games in his career just by showing up, he doesn’t have to be at his best.’