Alexander Zverev has no interest in recovering fitness as the world number four aims to push to an "absolute limit" at the French Open.

The German overcame Alex de Minaur in straight sets on Court Philippe-Chatrier, progressing to the Roland-Garros semi-finals for a fourth straight year on Wednesday.

Yet that does not tell the whole story as Zverev battled relentlessly to earn his 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 triumph over the Australian world number 11.

Falling 4-0 and 5-1 down in the second-set tie-break, Zverev seemed to afford De Minaur a route back into the match, only for the fourth seed to come crashing back in a response.

Zverev eventually sealed victory in just under three hours of the quarter-final meeting, and has every intention of pushing himself further for the last-four clash with Casper Ruud.

"Everybody in the press keeps asking me what I do for recovery and the answer is very simple – you don't recover after matches, you recover in the off-season," Zverev said in his on-court interview.

"I have the mindset you have to work harder than everyone else to be the best player. I like to work to my absolute limit. If I do that then playing five sets all of a sudden is not that difficult.

"I've been doing that over many years and I'm happy to be in another semi-final. Hopefully I can win one."

A fourth semi-final appearance in Paris means Zverev will equal Dominic Thiem for the most of any player born since 1990.

Among players with five main draws in the Open Era, Zverev (80.5 per cent) also holds the best winning percentage at Roland-Garros of any player not to have won the singles title at the event.

Ruud will stand in the way of a major final outing for Zverev, who says his battling identity has been embroiled in his mind from a young age.

"I have a coach who's my father who couldn't care less how I feel on the practice court," he added.

"Since I was three years old, it was run here, run there, run for four hours straight. He sometimes forgets I'm two metres tall and can hit a serve 230 kilometres an hour.

"I wish I would be more aggressive sometimes, but if I'm winning, I'm happy."