By Chris Oddo | Thursday May 19, 2016

Germany’s Alexander Zverev is getting plenty of practice time on the clay before next week’s French Open. The 19-year-old world No. 48 saved two match points to earn his third consecutive victory over Gilles Simon on Thursday at the Open de Nice Cote D’azur. His 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(1) victory books him a place in his third semifinal of 2016.

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It hasn’t been easy this week for Zverev.

The talented German has spent seven hours and 32 minutes on court in three matches, needing three sets to get by Kyle Edmund (RET prior to third set) and Marcel Granollers in his first two matches as well as three-hour contest with Simon on Thursday.

“I’ve now played two three-hour matches back-to-back, so I’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” said Zverev, who will next face Portugal’s Joao Sousa in the semifinals.

5th-seeded Sousa was a 7-5, 7-5 winner over South Africa’s Kevin Anderson on Thursday.

Zverev nearly got through in straights as well but he might have done it sooner with a little luck. He had a chance to shorten his day in the second set but squandered two set points in the second-set tiebreaker and then had to save two match points while serving at 5-6, 15-40 before finally prevailing in a third-set breaker over Simon.

Zverev has twice survived third-set tiebreakers with the Frenchman in 2016.

On the other side of the bracket, top-seeded and defending champion Dominic Thiem rolled through his quarterfinal with Andreas Seppi, 6-3, 6-3, to improve his 2016 win total to 34. Only Novak Djokovic (37) has more wins than Thiem this year.

The 22-year-old Austrian has only spent two hours and seven minutes on court in taking down Leonardo Mayer and Seppi. He will face Adrian Mannarino in the semis.