Carlos Alcaraz He made it clear from day one: “I prefer to play outdoors“. The Murcian saw the sun on Monday, July 1, in his Wimbledon debut against Mark Lajal and has no longer enjoyed it. As a consequence, Their next four games have been indoors due to rain..
The weather forecast gives a truce on Wednesday and Thursday, the two days in which Alcaraz will not jump to the green mat, and turns gray again on Friday, the day of the semifinals, when he will face Daniil Medvedev again. Six precedents between the two, with the Spanish dominating the set 4-2. I remember the 2023 semifinal on the same stage.
Tommy Paul, victim of Carlitos in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 and 6-2, came into the match fired up, not in vain had he had a chain of nine wins on grass. The American had taken over from the Spaniard in the record of the Open 500 at Queen’s.
Paul and Alcaraz tied two wins in the head-to-head matches between them, all on North American soilwhich demonstrates the difficulty that Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil has in neutralizing Tommy’s tennis.
The defender of the crown began by breaking the serve of his opponent in the third game to deliver it immediately afterwards. The American was especially accurate on the return and had four more break balls in the sixth round. Carlitos was able to save them.
The exchanges were so long that it seemed like we were playing on dirt
It was in the ninth set when Alcaraz was more aggressive from the return. He had two options to get to 5-4 and serve and then he would be forced to save a dangerous 15-30. The Murcian surprised whoever he could with the serve and volley. He complained about the poor condition of the grass that caused some irregular bounces.
A very long backhand gave Paul the set point which he took advantage of with a pass. The game started awry.
From 3-0 to equal set
Alcaraz had had one of those disconnections. Of the last 20 points, he had only added five. And he added 1/9 in breaks, very little effectiveness against an opponent on a streak.. Tommy, on the other hand, went to his own. He was ready to serve for 3-0. Then the caste of the champion of three greats appeared.
Paul’s winning shots that were coming in before were going away. Carlitos was back and led 4-3 and served. It would equalize the result. To start from scratch. It was like a best of three sets match.
“Come on Charlie“, he was encouraged. The truce was over.
The regularity in Carlitos’ greats, with only 21 years and 65 daysnow places him as the third member of the ‘Armada’ with the most appearances in the semifinals of a ‘Grand Slam’ (6), tied with his coach Ferrero and David Ferrer, current national Davis Cup coach. Rafael Nadal (38) and Manolo Santana (8) remain ahead.
The two of them were also the only ones who had made it into the top four at Wimbledon on more than one occasion. Carlitos’ precocity puts him on a list with Bj�rn Borg, Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic and Nadal among the professionals who reached six semifinals in the majors at such a young age..
Alcaraz has become a turf specialist in a very short time. Today he added his sixteenth victory in the third major, twelfth in a row, equaling his US Open record. Only on the clay of Paris (18) did he win more.
