Carlos Alcaraz stormed into his third consecutive Grand Slam last by defeating Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 of their U.S. Open semifinal bout Friday afternoon in New York.
The 22-year-old Spanish star will face both World No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy or Canadian twenty fifth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who will meet within the different semifinal Friday night.
Alcaraz is looking his sixth Grand Slam title and his second this 12 months, following his victory over Sinner on the French Open. He’s 45-2 in his previous 47 matches total.
Over the course of two hours and 25 minutes, Alcaraz outperformed the Serbian legend by successful 42 of his 50 first-service factors (84 %), together with seven aces. He dropped just one service sport — simply the second time his serve has been damaged all match.
“It is an amazing feeling. As soon as once more within the last right here on the U.S. Open, it feels wonderful,” Alcaraz mentioned in his on-court interview.
Alcaraz gained the 2022 U.S. Open and reached the semifinals the next 12 months earlier than a shocking second-set exit in 2024.
“At present, I might say — it wasn’t the very best degree of the match for me, however I simply stored a great degree from the start till the final level,” Alcaraz mentioned. “I served fairly effectively, I believe that was actually, actually necessary. Attempting to play a very bodily match and I believe I did it. Basically, I performed actually good tennis and I am simply actually glad to have the ability to play in my second last right here.”
Djokovic, 38, will end and not using a Grand Slam title for the second 12 months in a row. The report 24-time main winner superior to the semifinals in any respect 4 Slams this 12 months, however didn’t attain a last.
He allowed it’ll proceed to be exhausting to be the final man standing in Grand Slam tournaments with stars like Alcaraz and Sinner.
“I nonetheless need to play the Grand Slam season subsequent 12 months,” Djokovic mentioned. “Let’s examine whether or not that is gonna occur or not … however I do fancy my possibilities extra in best-of-three one-week tournaments or the Masters tournaments the place you possibly can have a number of days between matches. That might serve me higher within the matchups towards them.”
Djokovic broke Alcaraz’s serve within the second sport of the second set en path to a 3-0 lead. Alcaraz ripped off the subsequent three video games with ease and so they held serve all the way in which to a second-set tiebreaker, which Alcaraz gained because of a 4-1 head begin.
Alcaraz broke Djokovic for a 3-1 lead within the third set, at which level the eventual final result was not in query.
–Subject Stage Media
